A 15-Year-Old’s Take on Follow-for-Follow
Is it a good strategy to grow on Medium? Is it worth it?
It’s very unlikely that you don’t know about follow-for-follow.
It has got its presence on like every social media platform ou there—Instagram, Twitter... and now Medium too.
Though I haven’t used Twitter or Instagram for a while now, I’ve witnessed it when I did.
On Medium it works something like this:
Writers follow a ton of random people and expect them to follow back. Then ultimately they unfollow those who hadn’t followed them back.
Or unfollow them all or don’t unfollow anyone at all. There’s diversity at this step.
But a million-dollar question is (okay, this is a bit exaggerated, but bear with me):
Is it a good strategy? Is it worth it?
My take on this question and the situation overall is quite simple, and straightforward.
I don’t like this strategy (like not—at—all) personally.
And I’ve got some pretty solid facts and opinions to back it up. So hear me out.
- In one sense you’re trying to trick the algorithm. You want more followers—through the strategy of follow-for-follow—so that algorithm pushes your content to more people. If only it were that simple.
- No one is interested in reading your work. They only followed you because either you followed them or they expect you to follow them. That’s it; nothing more, nothing less.
- This strategy kills engagements real bad. This is because neither the algorithm nor real people are interested in reading what you have to say. Former because it’s not stupid enough to not recognise you’re just trying cheap follow-for-follow tactics to get more views and latter… well they don’t care.
- It’s just a headache to use this strategy. Writing in itself is no easy job. Then why take another job of following random people and commenting under their stories (that you haven’t read, by the way) to follow you (back).
I know Medium’s recent Partner Program policies mandates having at least 100 followers to monetize your stories.
And that’s the very reason, I think, behind the popularity of follow-for-follow on Medium. Everyone wants to achieve that milestone as soon as possible.
But try to look at this situation objectively.
Assume you’ve crossed the 100 followers mark. Given, using follow-for-follow. First of all, congratulations. But now what?
No one will be there to read your work, although your followers count made you think so. Ultimately, you only make money when paying members read and engage with your posts, right?
To summarise in one line:
Although it looks like an easy and attractive way to earn more money or get more followers, it’s not.
In the long-term, it’s nothing but a vanity metric with absolutely no use.
In place of that, do this:
- Follow writers who you genuinely like to read
- Build genuine connections
- Put more effort into crafting better stories
I hope this provides you with a better understanding of follow-for-follow and helps you make a wise decision if to rely on it.
This article is a part of “A 15-Year-Old’s Take On” series. I’ll be turning 16 on March 16 and I just want to document how I feel or think about certain topics (at this age). And maybe just reflect on them in the future.
Stay tuned for the next story in this series. Follow me, VRITANT and this publication, SERENDIPITY so you don’t miss the upcoming ones. ☺️
