Getting That 100 Followers
For the sweet, sweet victory of getting paid
I’ve got a new Medium account building down to a science.
First, set up all the accounts I need — Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Substack. The rush of creating a whole new profile gives me shivers. But best of all is getting that first 100 followers.
Sweet, sweet dopamine with every step!
For most people, just getting ONE account to that fabled 100 is tough. So, I’m going to lay it out for you: it’s really not that hard (and doesn’t have to compromise your integrity, either), once you know what to do.
And knowing is the entire battle. Everything else is fun as hell.
If you’re impatient and want to get started asap, skip to Step Two.
Step One: Publish An Article
A lot of you already have, but there’s more to it than just typing out some words and clicking “publish.” Hear me out before you skip right over this step, alright? It’s important.
You can publish anything any which way, but if you want to maximize the rest of the steps, there are a few things to consider about your stories.
What They See
If it’s your very first article, people will see it front and center when they click to your page on Medium. No jiggering necessary.
— But —
If you’re coming to this with a wad of stories under your belt, newcomers to your page will see pinned stories first. And they get ordered by most recently pinned first.
At some point, I’ll write about my thoughts on pinned stories, but for now if you don’t have 100 followers, UNPIN YOUR STORIES. There’s no way you know what people want or need to read at this point, so just stop.
Get some data under your belt first, ok?
I know you want people to know who you are, and if it’s just one story ok fine. But there are people pinning 5 stories on their pages! Please, just don’t. One or two is enough. And if you need to pin more, then you need to pin a story that points to those others.
Below the pinned stories, everything else is ordered most recent story first. This is why you don’t want more than 3 pinned posts — at maximum!
People want to know what you’re up to now, and they don’t want to scroll that deep to find it. Give them what they want as easily as possible so they have more incentive to read (and you get that sweet dopamine from the MPP stats).
What They Click
Are you just writing your thoughts? Me too!
It’s not a terrible idea, but it’s incomplete on its own. You’ve probably read people talk/write about writing what your readers want, right? Well, I’m saying something like that.
But, you know, not so vague.
Take your thoughts as they are and start structuring them like you’re talking to a stranger. Go back and read it before hitting publish as if you’re hearing someone say those things to you and change it as needed.
It’s that simple.
I’m sure there’s a lot to be said of engineering topics and structuring the article in a specific way that’s pleasing to the reader, but that’s the next level.
What you want is something that works with little effort or experience, so you can let your creative juices flow~ and still get noticed. So keep your audience in mind, but not so much that it’s paralyzed you from your creative spirit.
Oh, and there’s definitely an art to the title and subtitle, but that’s something I’ll leave for another day. It’s not as important for your first 100 as it becomes as you grow, so you’ve got time to figure that part out along the way.
How They Find You
Now, this one bleeds into the rest of the steps. There are a bunch of ways to help people find you, and they all have different benefits. I wouldn’t place any one over the others.
Oh, and none of them requires advertising.
Not in the sense of spam, gimmicks or paid stuff. The paid tactics are helpful in their own way, I’m sure, but I know next to nothing about that stuff. When I learn more, I’ll let you know.
Instead, let’s work with the basics:
- First and foremost, find a publication that fits what you’ve published. That’s a cornerstone for long-term success. They usually have some kind of theme that sets the tone for your audience. It helps when trying to write for your reader, but also puts your articles and stories in front of the pub’s followers. I’ve noticed if I’ve followed people that write in pubs I’ve followed, I see them more often than I would if they were just one or the other. I suggest doing this first because while it takes a while to get going, the results can be pretty powerful over time.
- Obligatory mention about tags here. I know this helps, but I’ll be honest I find the rest of the basics to be much more helpful. Maybe it takes thousands of people (or stories?) for this one to be more apparent. In any case, it doesn’t take much to make sure you’ve added all 5 tags in somewhat relevant categories.
- Remember to Twitter! I’m so bad at this one because I hardly ever self-publish my stories. As soon as you can, after a story is published, tweet it. There’s an easy button to click on the story so you can do that, but you’ll only get the prompt if you’ve self-published (or published in your own pub). So it can be easy to forget.
- Responses to others’ articles are a hidden gem on Medium. This is where the rest of the steps begin. Responses are more targeted, more personal between you and another writer-reader on Medium. It’s the hard work that gets the gears really turning!
You’ll understand a bit better in the second half. Probably.
Step Two: Find An Article
For your first 100 (or when trying to increase the number to whatever your goal may be at the time), a great place to start is articles with the tag “100 Followers,” or “100 Followers Challenge.” I saw someone use #100followersclub, so maybe that’s a rising keyword, too.
(Or check out my Follower To Follower series for an easier time of it!)
Lots of folks are just like you, trying to get past that first hurdle. No sense in scrambling by ourselves, right?
The way I go about it is slightly predatory, and people do use the same method with a lot less integrity. But that’s not how you are, right? I have faith you’ll use this power for good.
Of course, this works for any article, not just ones about followers. If you want to use a different article, skip to Step Five.
Step Three: Scan The Comments
Responses. Whatever. Open them. You don’t have to read the article yet; you will, though, right?! But I think it’s better to do at the end, so the material is fresh in your mind.
Scroll through the comments and find people that are under 100. Open them in new tabs until you’re all the way through.
On some articles, this may be impossible. You can break it up and repeat the process every 30 or so tabs you open and it has the same effect. Of course, this is ridiculous to try on a phone.
Yes, this work is best done on a computer. It’s worth it, though.
Step Four: Right To Left
Tabs in Chrome open from left to right, so when I’m ready to start working on the tabs, I start on the right. That way the article I started with is dead last (and if I had to open the tabs in sections, it holds my place in the comments).
Now that we’ve picked a person to start with, it’s time to check out their page. Don’t just follow everyone! There’s a method to determine who is a good follow to weed out “dead” accounts.
- They commented in the last 60 days~ If the article is too old, it’s less helpful. But they could just be a Medium vet, and that’s ok.
- Their last story was published in the last 30 days~ If they commented in the last 60 days, but published over a year ago, there might still be hope. Otherwise, move on.
- Their content is appealing to you~ this one is non-negotiable. I made the mistake of letting this slide, and it got really hard to support people I didn’t agree with or wasn’t interested in their topics.
The more of these a person has, the better! Try to focus on people that have all 3, especially in the first 100.
If they don’t measure up, that’s ok. Try the next one.
Step Five: Investment
Never mind the dates, as long as there’s an article that piques your interest it’s good enough. Though if there’s nothing in the first 10, you might be better off moving on to someone else.
Read through the article like you’re on a Google search rabbit hole and highlight where you feel like. If you don’t find anything highlight-worthy, that’s fine; but we writers love to know a phrase made an impact. So don’t hold back if you’re feeling it.
Give out some claps, whatever you feel it was worth. Up to 50, for the really good stuff.
NEVER LEAVE JUST ONE CLAP.
If you don’t know better, you’re forgiven. But if you know you can give more, leaving 1 is more of a slap than a clap. It hurts. Like a slow clap IRL. Ick.
Then leave a comment. Assuming you were interested and read the article, this should be easy. You have thoughts, right? Imagine you’re having a conversation after they gave a lecture (and spoke the article).
Be yourself, but also be kind. We’re all people here, just doing our best.
If this feels difficult, you can use the “listen” feature so the voices read it to you. I find it’s easier to feel like they’ve spoken to me that way. Takes longer, but helps if you need it.
Somewhere in there, remember to follow them. If you feel like asking for a follow back, be nice about it and understand they may not. And that’s ok.
Expectation is the birthplace of disappointment.
Without expecting anyone to follow me back, I have gotten hundreds of followers on several different accounts. People like to choose to support you, rather than being told to.
When You’re Done
Don’t forget to read through that 100 Followers article that gave you all those tabs in the first place! And comment there, too~ it will attract other newbies looking for follows without additional effort.
Just remember to support them back when you can. At least the ones that take the time to comment.
Ways To Fail
There are some things I do NOT recommend, or rather I recommend NOT doing. They lower the chances of a follow back, and generally aren’t good things to do anyway:
- Don’t demand a follow back.
- Don’t leave just one clap
- Don’t troll people
- Don’t be an asshole (comment with kindness, people)
- Don’t be fake
- Don’t support/follow people unless you want to (there are thousands of Medium users out there, you don’t have to follow everyone!)
- Don’t steal people’s words
- Don’t push too hard—yourself or others
- Don’t take yourself for granted (self-care is important)
Most of these should be pretty obvious, but we all have our blind spots somewhere.
(For more on this, and clarification about f4f vs. “follow-up,” check out this article here.)
Now that you have all the tools, I wish you the best of luck~ and I’ll see you on the other side of MPP paywalls soon enough!
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