I Have Read Your Article and Now It’s Your Turn To Do The Same
Here’s my honest experience with Medium Facebook Groups.
Joining Medium Facebook groups did give me a little boost in my view, but not so much in terms of read ratio. I don’t expect to achieve a 100% read ratio for all my stories. Most writers don’t.
The Irrelevant Writer
These writers comment on other people’s posts using their story links, and the story link has no relation to the post content. How does writing about your cat got to do with a story about my first month on Medium? I don’t understand how you think they are related.
I’ve posted a couple of individual Facebook posts over the past few days, and I’ve noticed most of the writers don’t leave any comments about my actual post content, but rather adding their stories links, some even multiple links at once.
I bet they saw my posts and saw that as a perfect opportunity to promote their article, so they added links. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m perfectly fine with you linking your stories for me to read, but could you please care to leave some thoughts on my actual content before linking yours. You have nothing to lose, and it only takes a few seconds to respond.
The Drop and Run Writer
Exactly as what the title says, these people drop their story links and leave. No interaction, no comments whatsoever.
If you want people to read your work, read their stories first. Facebook groups are an excellent opportunity to promote your work to others, but supporting other writers comes first. Don’t be so busy promoting your work and neglect the most important part of Facebook Groups — connecting with other writers. When you’ve tried to get to know other writers and their style of writing, they’re more willing to show you their support, maybe giving you a few claps on your stories and following you.
When you take the time and effort to get to know other writers and engage with their work, they’ll remember you better. Give more than you receive; then, you’ll increase your chances of getting reciprocity from other writers.
The Opportunity Grabber
Every thread in the group is bound to have these people’s story links. Even thread that asks specifically for Medium profiles or publications.
These people tend to belong to the heavy self-promoting category. All they want is to get their stories out to as many eyes as possible. I’ve seen people who don’t read the posts by others, linking their stories to every thread they can find. Their links are often found under posts where a member shares a moment in their life, without any comments on the actual post content. This behaviour reveals how desperate they are to get eyes on their stories.
I’m upset. Why do these people only care about themselves? Where has all the support gone? I’m not against you promoting your work; you have every right to do so. But could you please show some support to other writers? Self-promoting doesn’t hurt, but too much of it becomes toxic, Don’t they deserve some love on their stories too? Medium is not all about you; it is for everyone.
The Self-Congratulatory Writer
They share their first curation, first 100 bucks, first published article in a big publication, earned several top writer badges in the first few weeks of writing, the list goes on.
Facebook groups are a place for writers to read and connect, not showing off your achievements and garner attention.
Nobody is interested in knowing you made $1379.95 in your first month or that your first article got curated. We are only interested in how you can help us achieve the same success as you. Provide something valuable to your reader, instead of merely announcing your achievements on Medium.
The Rules Breaker
These people joined the group, claiming to have read and agreed with the group rules, but their action says otherwise. Things like no story links outside of the daily share thread, or one member one link. Rules are written for you to follow, not break them.
If you can’t abide by the rules of each group, then don’t make big promises in the beginning; because you are only asking for trouble and making the moderators’ lives difficult.
Make Facebook Groups Great Again
No reader should feel obliged to clap or follow a writer. I’m not going to lie, but sometimes I give 50 claps to an article that I don’t enjoy as much, topics that don’t interest me as much. I do this to encourage writers to write more.
Don’t expect everyone to read your work. We all have different preferences. By linking your stories, all you’re doing is to recommend your work, not forcing others to read, clap, or highlight. The article that you spend blood, sweat, and tears to churn out may not be appealing to others. What you think is the best might be the worst someone else ever came across. Your opinion might be an insult to some people, and you invoke their anger to respond in a long post to your story.
Despite what I’ve said, I’ll still recommend anyone to join Facebook groups, especially if you’re new on Medium. There’s a community of writers to ask questions and get answers from, which can be extremely helpful for newbies still trying to figure out how Medium works.
I’m someone who loves giving others support. It doesn’t matter if they’re strangers. I consider myself a people person, and I love surrounding myself with positive, like-minded people. I love to learn from others ad grow myself to a better person. If you’re anything like me, you’ll love the Facebook community.
There’s no foolproof method to make everyone fall in love with you, but there’s an existing audience for every writer. What you can do is to interact and connect with like-minded people, work on building your online presence, and eventually attracting readers to you.
Attract readers to you genuinely, not blatantly.
