Making the Most out of Medium
How I was incredibly wrong about this platform and how to get more from being a part of the community.
Children Win via Pixabay
How I was incredibly wrong about this platform and how to get more from being a part of the community.
I joined Medium in 2013. At the time, I was still not confident in myself as a writer. I didn’t really think anyone would be interested in reading what I put up, but I made a few articles and posted them with varying degrees of success.
In my younger, more brash, days I wrote a piece called, “The Death of Medium: Or How Marketing Will Ruin a Good Thing”. Fresh off an adrenaline boost from mainlining Gary Vee videos, I thought I understood something about the future of Medium. Gary espoused the phrase, “marketers ruin everything” in many of his earlier videos and I ate it up. The fact that Medium felt like the garden of Eden at the time, I could only imagine how soon marketing professionals, like myself, would swoop in and bite the forbidden fruit, ruining it for everyone. The article even got a response from Ev Williams, who gracefully and politely, explained why he believed I was incorrect.
Thankfully, I was completely wrong about the direction Medium would take as a platform.
A while after my revelatory article, I fell off the Medium train and didn’t post another article for almost five years. Every so often I would come across something posted here that was shared on social media and read it, thinking about how I should get back to doing some more writing.
Finally, after enough high-quality articles made their way through my social media feeds, I decided to give it another chance. My 2013 fears were that Medium was going to become a place for people to constantly sell things. Instead, it’s become a hybrid of people who have engaging stories to tell, useful information to share, and a place for civil discourse. Sure, there are still businesses and companies doing their best to hock their products, but I think the algorithms that push stories to members do a fairly good job at keeping that to a minimum.
When I first started with Medium, I failed to understand the community that would emerge from the stories being shared. And as the platform stands now, it is so much more than another place online to read great articles. Although it isn’t too difficult to find something interesting to read, if all you are doing is reading and publishing, you are only getting half the benefit.
If you really want to get the most out of Medium, here are a few things to keep in mind when you log on.
Share your best story
There are an estimated 2 Million blog posts produced every single day. People who engage with content regularly are looking for things that make them think or make them feel. The great thing about any human life is that it’s unique and yet relatable.
It is my opinion that the job of a writer is to share the best story they can muster. Whether you are explaining to people how Google’s algorithms work or you are sharing a personal accomplishment, sharing the best version of the story you possibly can, should always be the goal.
This isn’t a call for embellishment though. In fact, it’s a call for being more truthful, honest, and open in your writing. The best stories don’t come from trying to impress the reader, but from providing the information and letting them come to their own conclusions.
Follow People with Different Views
It feels really good to follow people that have the same thoughts and ideas as you. It confirms that you are not alone. But if you really want to get the most out of Medium, follow the people who you disagree with or don’t have things in common with.
When you start seeing the stories they write, are clapping for, or what they highlight, you expose yourself to ideas you probably hadn’t considered in the past. The more people you follow, the better your chances are of learning something new about yourself.
Put Effort into Your Comments
It’s easy to throw out a comment like, “great article”. But if that’s all you say about what you are reading, you are missing out. Comments should be considered more like a mini-story you are producing than a blind criticism of what you are reading.
If you take the time to reflect on what you have been reading and comment on that reflection, you open up the possibility of a great conversation, either with the writer, or anyone else.
Use That Highlighter
The lowly highlighter. A tool that I often ignored throughout most of my schooling which has continued to persist into adulthood. Until recently, I didn’t really understand why I would want to highlight things in Medium. But the other day, I came across a phrase that I just didn’t want to ever forget. So I actually highlighted it. And now it’s stored in my Medium profile for anyone to see.
What’s really cool about the highlighter feature is that it lets authors know what parts of their stories resonant with you. It’s an easy way to show someone that you like what they are doing.
Medium can be an incredibly rewarding experience. One that I didn’t really understand in the beginning, but have come to truly enjoy. I’ve found that Medium has become my social platform of choice these days. The people I’m engaging with are people that make me think and challenge me to be a better writer.
I’m so glad I was wrong all those years ago.