Passing the half way point

I believe it was back in March I wrote a post detailing why I won’t be begging for 100 followers just to get onto the Medium Partner Program (MPP), something that I have stuck to.

Yesterday after 3 months of posting on Medium I have made it past the half way point, queue a small but happy little dance in a pair of flip flops.

What’s been my strategy so far

I don’t want to regurgitate what everyone else on Medium has been saying or doing but there will be some cross overs as to how I’ve been growing my followers on the platform.

• Facebook Medium Groups: When I first started thinking about growing my follower numbers I thought I need more eyes on my writing. Where better than to promote your articles than on social media and specifically groups that bring writers and readers together. The three, yes three I’ve joined include: Medium Writers and Genuine Readers, Medium Writers and Bloggers and most recently Medium Poets and Writers.
• Social Networks: I share most of my articles on both Twitter, Instagram and my own Facebook page. In total I have just shy of 1,300 followers across the entire social media world. This brings more eyes over my articles, unsure on the number of followers it delivers.
• Commenting & Reading: I’ve started to really get into reading other people’s articles and leaving a comment. I used to typically write a comment such as “great article” or “awesome post”. Now I try and add my own two penneth worth and give my own opinion, if it is topic I have an opinion on.
• Writing articles:- I’d love to say that I have been writing consistently over the past 3 months, that’s not quite the case. A quick look at the stats show that on average I’ve been writing around 4 articles a month, or 1 a week. However some weeks I’ve written twice and in other weeks I’ve not bothered at all, so much for consistency.
• Topics of Interest:- I tend to write articles about business, lifestyle, occasional motivational posts and the odd social media news — when there is something exciting to share.

Implementing the above has got me so far, it has got me over the half way mark. There is still a way to go to the magical 100 followers, that said I’m targeting the 110 follower number so that way it allows for the odd unfollower.

What am I going to do next?

At the start of May I set myself the goal to increase the number of followers by the end of June to the magical 100 to allow me to sign back up to the MPP. Back then my total follower number was just 34, I wish I could say I’ve gone all out and wrote article after article, unfortunately that is not the case.

Again looking at the stats, May was one of my lowest months for visitor numbers and views on my articles.

If I am to hit my target of 110 followers by the end of June I am going to have step up my activity on Medium, so what does that look like?

Between now and June 30th I’ll be doing more of the following:

1. Engaging: I’ll continue to Comment and Clap on people’s own postings adding value where I can and follow people that are of interest.
2. Writing More:- I’ll endeavour to write a couple more articles between now and the end of June and then write consistently on a weekly/monthly basis.
3. Get a story into a publication:- I’ve seen a lot of Medium members do this and it seems publications get more eyes on you and your blog.
4. Include a Medium Link in my signature: I’m going to add a link to my blog into my email signature, I don’t know if people still click on links in people’s signature so this will be interesting.
5. Newsletters: I send out regular newsletters to my current clients, I have been giving a lot of thought to including this blog within that newsletter as a sort of “Thought Leadership” blog.

So there’s my plan until the end of June, I shall endeavour to write a post in July about the progress and whether I achieved my goal of 110 followers.

The Lesson

So if you’ve made it this far, what is the lesson here? For me the lesson is clear, you don’t need to do what everyone else is doing, follow for follow, you can make it to your target by focusing on your own strategy and trialing it.

Yes it’s going to take you a little longer but ask yourself is follow for follow the easy road? What will you learn by doing what everyone is doing?

I welcome any ideas people have to add to my list of ways to increase my followers, just pop them in the comments below and I will respond to all of them.