How did I increase my engagement by +237% on Medium using the simplest trick ever?

Disclaimer: I picked 237% totally randomly, but I did notice that my engagement increased considerably since I started doing this.

I decided to write this very short post to share the little trick with all of you after my friend Tom Kuegler, who is very successful on Medium, told me it was an awesome idea.

He also mentioned he never did it, and will try soon.

Even if it’s so simple, I have noticed that some of my favorite writers don’t even do it. And I know it would make a difference if they used it.

Let’s skip the teasing part, and dive into it.

1. You only get what you ask for

One of the way people can interact with your story is to “clap” it, right?

Actually, they can clap it from 1 to 50 times.
→ Not everyone know this.

And the simplest way ever to get people to engage,
is to ask them to do so.

In the end of the post, just tell them that you would love them to support you by clapping your story.

Just say it the way you want it,
use your own words.

Explain to them why it’s important for you,
or just ask them to do so if they liked what they read.

Be creative.

I know it doesn’t feel great at first to some people to ask for social engagement on their content.

But hey, Medium is a social media, so let’s play the social media game!

You don’t have to beg for it, just ask it nicely
— if you want to see how I do it, just look at the end of this post.

To me, it even became a game to change the very last part of each post to ask people to engage with it. And see what works best.

2. Ask them EXACTLY what you want them to do

As I mentioned previously, readers can clap from 1 to 50 times.
And the Medium Staff even specify it in the end of the post, see below.

So, actually the maximum isn’t forty but fifty, and if clapping more signal “which stories really stand out”, it also means that it has an impact on their reach.

This is in my opinion one of the smartest way to engage with content that I have ever seen so far.

Thank you Ev Williams for making it this way, I really think it makes a difference in how people support the writers!

So, of course, as a writer, we can take advantage of this feature.
I mean, we have to.

If people can make your story stand more if they appreciate it more and clap more, then you get to ask them!

If you want to see how I’m doing it, just look right below.

You can copy and paste the sentence I used directly, but I would highly recommend that you do it your own way, so it will be more engaging with your own audience.

That’s it, I told you it was simple.
And it’s highly efficient as well!

Try it, and tell me how it worked for you :)

PLEASE, 👏 (up to 50 times ❤) this story below if you liked it, and follow me here to read more 👏