Respond to Every Good Piece of Content

I’m no longer silent.

I read a whole lot, which is why I’m falling more and more in love with Medium. Being able to read excellent, endless content is such a great way to learn about the people I already know, and to find new people with similar interests. I’ve just recently realized how much I’m missing out my simply consuming the information, learning, and moving to the next article.

My approach to content is all about taking. Taking good content from writers and learning from it, but never giving back (besides my super-valuable pageviews). While there isn’t anything terribly wrong with this approach, I’m now know that I’m missing out.

I’ve learned just how great it is to participate instead of simply taking. From now on, I’m working on responding to great content in one of several ways. One of my favorites so far is to write comments on Medium. Medium makes it super easy to share comments on articles found on the website. My comments are actually being read and publicized, and I’ve even started a few discussions. Had I simply left to read the next section, I would have missed out on this interaction.

When you respond to good content, you further a relationship with a content creator and/or their audience.

Another good way to interact with content is to promote it. If you thought it was great, then surely someone else will. For promotion, I turn to Twitter. When I share good content, I’m building a stronger relationship with my current followers, but also with the writer/creator the content (provided I include their username in the tweet).

Try responding. Prove that you are a human. Think about how good you feel when someone pays attention to your own stuff. What if you could make 5 people feel that way everyday? You can.

Leave a comment. Maybe on this article, maybe on whatever article is next in your reading list. A comment can be as simple as “I love this quote”, or you could spark some sort of discussion. If all else fails, reply to a comment! If commenting isn’t your style, promote it. Tell your friends, maybe even email an article to someone you don’t know that well. Magic will ensue.

Promise: If you comment on this article and I publicize it, I will write a comment on one of your Medium articles.

I’m on Twitter.