Finding the Right Balance as a Blogger With Medium
Whether you’re a young adult looking to start blogging for the first time, an experienced mommy blogger, a business or an agency, you want your writing to stand out online. Thought leadership has rightfully become a buzzword these days in the blogging community. Every blogger desires recognition for his or her expertise.
When Twitter co-founder Evan Williams launched Medium in 2012, he hoped to give users the ease of sharing that Twitter provides, as well as the ability to produce long-form content (but not too long, as the name suggests). The tool is completely free and simple to set up, and those with Twitter accounts can set up a profile in no time. But the most crucial aspect of Medium is its integrative platform that gives bloggers an opportunity to reach more than 400,000 users.
Bloggers always ask: should I be posting on Medium, where my posts are easily accessible, or my own blog? (For the record, we believe bloggers should do both — the ability to own your content as a storyteller is one thing that only your personal blog can offer. But Medium, after all, can drive traffic to your personal blog if you include click-through links in your posts.) Below are a couple things that make Medium a unique, valuable tool for your blogging efforts.
Enjoy its Intuitive Layout
From publishing to reading, Medium is about as user-friendly as it gets. On the home page, the simple words “Write a Story” appear right next to the drop-down menu for your profile, in the upper-right corner. After clicking through to the new story page, you will see a text box to write your title, with a text box for the body of your post below that. No blueprints to choose from, no taskbars to get in your way.
You don’t need a taskbar anyhow — all content appears in the same font size and style (FF Kievit for all you style junkies out there), with plenty of white space between paragraphs to foster readership. And for those who read on the go? At the top of each Medium post, right by the time of posting, is the read time. Many people don’t usually want to spend more than 5 minutes reading a blog post, so the most successful Medium posts are 3–5 minute reads.
Engage A Wider Audience
Benji Hyam is a growth marketer who spent two years in Silicon Valley before launching his own website that helps businesses grow through content marketing. Like many marketers, he initially had reservations about Medium as a tool to drive traffic and gain traction for his brand.
Hyam helped his first Medium post go viral by pitching the right publications. He spoke to several successful publishers and learned that the platform operates like a mini-magazine. Unlike a regular blog, Medium allows users to follow each other (like Twitter). Certain publications have hundreds of thousands of followers, and if your content fits their niche, they may allow you to guest publish. So, Hyam sent tweets to the editors of several publications, pitching his story idea. Some of them bit, helping Hyam’s post receive 10,000 views in 4 days.
Build Relationships
Medium publications allow writers to build trust with an audience — just like they can with a personal blog — yet it operates like a social network, giving content the immediate visibility that a personal blog can never offer. Engagement comes easy to Medium users, who simply have to drag their cursor over certain sections of text in a post. A small box then comes up, giving them the opportunity to either highlight or respond to the selected text.
Perhaps it is the semblance of a social network that gives Medium an air of informality. (OK let’s face it, Medium is a social network.) But this doesn’t mean it can’t be a valuable tool for bloggers of all kinds. So, how about this: maybe save the posts breaking down how you calculate your ROI for the personal or company blog. Use Medium to show off your personality, your wit, or to raise interesting questions about a topic of interest to you. But don’t forget to include links to your personal blog or website in your posts to drive traffic.
Medium need not be your only tool as a blogger, but we definitely recommend using it to engage a wider, more diverse audience. As experienced storytellers, we are proud of the work we have done on Medium!
This post, written by Sam Bojarski, originally appeared on our Storytelling blog.
