HOW I GOT ALMOST 600 FOLLOWERS IN LESS THAN 2 MONTHS.
TO GET NOTICED, LEARN THE 5 SECRETS OF CREATIVE ENGAGEMENT.
When I started writing on Medium, I was shattered, as many are. The earth-shattering brilliance of my writing was not drawing droves of readers & followers to me.
Only my extreme humility helped me cope with this profound embarrassment.
I was convinced the high mucky mucks with thousands of followers had some secret sauce. Perhaps they knew SEO or were promoting their stuff effectively on social media sites.
Their writing was good, but I believed not much better than mine. Some of them were more knowledgeable in their fields, but I believed I had comparable life experience.
I haven’t yet learned the secret sauce, but I did learn some things.
SECRET I — THE LONG GAME
Internet writing is a long game. You must work hard to develop a following. Unless your mother is reading your stuff, nobody cares what you write. If your mother is a bitch, perhaps she doesn’t care either.
This insight is a hard lesson in writing & life. People don’t necessarily care about what we care about. They care about what they care about & what’s in it for them.
So, give them something to make reading your stuff worth their time — solve a problem for them, tell them something important they haven’t heard before, arouse their emotions & amuse them, or horrify them & offer salvation (Religions have made a lot of money doing that).
But before you do all this good stuff, you’ve got to get their attention &, hopefully, hold it long enough to make an impression.
SECRET 2 — ENGAGE
Research shows only 1% of readers on the internet respond to what they read. In Medium terms, that means clapping, following, leaving comments.
Most people just skim headlines. If they do read content, it is only for about 30 seconds. You are lucky if 1/3 of your short piece is read.
Many advise using snappy headlines with power words from sites like CoSchedule or Sharethrough.
Good writers advise putting your strongest, most attention getting material in the very beginning of your piece.
Many wail in high moral dudgeon about not using clickbait. But you better know the techniques of clickbait. Kick them in the gut emotionally. Just be sure you follow through with real content that justifies the clickbait.
But to make any of this work, you’ve got to make them aware you exist .
SECRET 3 — CLAP, FOLLOW, COMMENT
Read thoroughly the work of others. It will flatter them & you might learn something. We have a lot of smart, knowledgeable writers on Medium. You will be introduced to aspects of life you were not aware of.
Don’t be part of the mindless 99% of internet “readers” with the attention of a demented flea.
When you find a piece that interests you, clap, follow that writer, & leave a comment, hopefully an intelligent one based on the original article.
When you Clap, others know you exist. When you follow, many out of courtesy follow back, when you comment, you may get a response from the writer & many others will read your comment & perhaps comment themselves.
SECRET 4 — GIVE QUALITY COMMENTS
Use the writer's name. People love to hear their names. It makes your comment much more personal & likely to get a response.
When possible, say something complimentary to the writer.
If you have a different point of view, try to say something complimentary at the beginning & end of your comment.
Read others comments. You may get important new insights into the material.
Follow the people whose comments you find interesting.
Generally, I ignore vapid, mindless comments, such as “Thank you for sharing” or “Great article”.
That is unless the poster has a lot of followers themselves.
On Twitter, I didn’t follow anyone who had less than 100 followers, as trolls & bots abound there.
If someone has an intelligent post, I give them a follow. You might encourage some cocky young upstart — like me.
On Medium, I can be a big enough whore to follow those with a lot of followers, even though their immediate post is inane.
Clap for & follow mindful comments, & sometimes I comment on comments. People love to know someone is paying attention.
Keep comments short & focused on the main points. Use short sentences & paragraphs, with occasional variation to something slightly longer. Use simple language, just as you should be writing on Medium.
Sometimes I see someone has wasted their time writing long paragraphs involving several subjects that look like a brick shithouse.
I don’t read them; I don’t think many other people do either.
If you have several things to write about, write different focused comments, or perhaps Medium pieces.
All we discussed takes time & work but is important in building up your recognition & following.
SECRET 5 — DON’T GIVE UP — FIND JOY
Only about 600 followers in less than 2 months. How paltry, some may say.
But it is more than many people have around here. If I keep it up for a couple of years, I may be one of those high mucky mucks with thousands of followers bragging obnoxiously about how I make more than $10,000 a month puking on the internet.
If that happens, block me, as I will be truly offensive.
Medium is a community. To get any attention here, you must relate to people. Old saying, “I am their leader; therefore, I must follow them.”
It’s about them, not you.
I hope what I said will help you to build your following.
Please clap, follow me, & comment on this post, or I will be very cross.
