Why we moved our company blog to Medium
Recently we decided to move over Whiteboard’s blog from a more traditional route of using our own domain and a Wordpress theme to a creating a publication on Medium and we wanted to share why we decided to make the change.
Large network of readers = Potential for vast exposure
As with anyone that writes a blog posting or story, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing the number of viewers and shares of a post climb. The goal for anyone that writes is for the story to gain as much exposure and visibility as possible. As a new startup, it takes a lot of work to get discovered and to build an audience. So why not take a little friction out and tap into the large network that Medium has to offer?
Just like any other social platforms, Medium makes it super simple for your story to get discovered and shared. Gary Vaynerchuk refers to social media as ‘the plumbing for word of mouth in our society’ and Medium is just that. There is no better way for an individual or company to gain such a vast amount of potential exposure without having to have a cult-like following.
A great post on Medium can spread like wildfire, whether you have been blogging for years or just days. There are plenty of examples out there where individuals have received tens of thousands of views in their first week of posting. A few have even broken the 100k+ in views in their first seven days. As Ev Williams recently said in a blog posting “Medium is not a publishing tool, it is a network.”
Opportunity to build an audience… quickly
With any technology, it is all about simplicity. How easy is it to accomplish a particular task. Medium nails the simplicity factor on a multitude of fronts, especially when it comes to building an audience.
Let’s first start with how simple it is to share a story on Medium. All you have to do is tap ‘Recommend’ button or select to share it via Twitter, Facebook or email. Which is super easy and clean. The controls don’t feel foreign to the blog posting unlike the current solutions out there that people tack onto their Wordpress theme. It is a natural behavior that fits perfectly within the flow of a Medium story.
When readers get to a point where they are ready to follow us and be kept up-to-date with our publishings, they can do so with a simple click of the ‘Follow’ button. There is no more friction of deciding whether or not they want to share their email address with you.
When it comes to sharing your email by subscribing to a blog, how do you feel about it? A few years ago you probably didn’t hesitate entering in your email address to be kept up-to-date. Now-a-days, people are more hesitant and more than likely not going to because the odds of their inbox being flooded with unwanted solicitation are high.
On Medium, they don’t need to share their email address to subscribe to your blog. Also when they are no longer interested in what you have to say, they can unsubscribe with a simple click of the mouse. No more having to jump through hoops to try and figure out how to stop the barrage of emails. So the decision on whether or not they want to take the steps to follow your blog has less friction and less thinking involved with Medium, thus increasing conversion of the number of individuals that will follow your blog.
Desire-Friction = Conversion
New way of doing things
Aside from gaining exposure and building your audience, Medium truly provides a new way of doing things in a way that we believe is how blogging and sharing stories are going to be done in the future.
With all of the noise going on in life today, people want simplicity and with that, they want to consolidate a lot of their activities into as few locations and applications as possible. The same applies with how people consume media. Medium provides you with one outlet to digest all of your blogs in one location. Now individuals don’t have to go from site-to-site or setup old school RSS feeds to consume the information they want. Users can also bookmark readings that they like from across anyone’s blog or publication and have them consolidated into one platform, not spread across in their browser bookmarks or email. That is a heck of a lot easier than remembering to navigate to a site, deviating from the natural flow of your day and entering in your email address to then be subscribed to a publication or blog.
At Whiteboard, we created a publication on Medium for our blog. By having a publication, it allows fellow team members to write and publish stories on the blog easily while allowing them to own and control their content. Not only can other team members contribute but allowing outsiders contributing to your blog couldn’t be easier. From a click of a mouse, you can accept and publish anyone’s story to your publication.
Friction to change
Of course with any change there is friction, so I am going to address a few points that are commonly asked of us:
What about SEO and having the reader directed to your site?
Medium posts are indexable on Google and you can’t complain about their Google PageRank. As for landing on our site, yes it would be nice but if people truly want to discover more of who we are and what we are about, they are still one click away from your homepage.
What about owning your audience?
I don’t want our audience to feel like we ‘own’ them. We aren’t collecting their email addresses and honestly why do we need their email address? To solicit them? If they follow us on Medium they will receive updates on when we share new stories. That’s about the only reason people subscribe to your blog anyway. With publications on Medium, if we need to reach out to our audience, we can write a letter to them and they will receive an email. So there is honestly no value of ‘owning’ them. Personally, I don’t like the sense of being ‘owned’, nor would a majority of our audience.
What about owning your content?
This is one that we have thought about. Medium does a great job of putting you in control and providing you with ownership of your content. The one thing that lurks in our minds is where is Medium going to be in 10 years? Will they still be around? What happens to our content? I guess time will tell and we can worry about that when the time comes.
and of course the common comment that comes with change ‘I think this isn’t a smart move…..’
Typically when people start to explore and try new things, others more than likely say ‘it isn’t a good thing’. That’s fine. Not all people are comfortable with change and new ways of doing things. We aren’t saying that this is meant for everyone. We believe this is what is currently best for us and building our audience around what we have to say.
We are excited and optimistic about the opportunities Medium provide individuals and company blogs such as ours.
There is always risk in trying something new. If it doesn’t work out, we always have the old way of doing things, but we are confident that this is the better way for us.
