There is no doubt Medium is one of the best websites for not only reading content but producing it as well. From tech to arts, there are topics that everyone can find some interest in.
As an online publishing platform, it gives new and experienced writers a chance to get their stories into a wide audience.
Unless your story gets curated however, simply posting your article on Medium in the hopes for thousands of views isn’t the best strategy.
It’s always best to create engaging and valuable content with catchy headlines but sometimes you need that extra boost to get your content to more pairs of eyes.
“What you do after you create your content is what truly counts.” — Gary Vaynerchuk
There are many ways to do this but here are 5 ways you can promote your Medium stories further:
1. Promoting On Quora
I’ve always been a major fan of Quora and it has a wealth of information on it with a great userbase.
It also gives you an opportunity to not only promote your brand but also the content you write.
There are two ways of doing so on Quora:
- Sharing Content On Spaces
- Answering Questions
Sharing Content On Spaces
Spaces is a relatively new concept introduced by Quora in 2018. Essentially its Quora attempt to create a community within its platform.
“Spaces, a new feature that allows people to curate collections and form communities around shared interests and tastes”
There are many awesome spaces that you can contribute articles from a wide range of topics (For example, I run a Social Media Space — feel free to submit anything related there!).
Many of the admins of these spaces are happy to share content as long as it’s not too spammy and actually provides value to the community.
Answering Questions
This is the bread and butter of what Quora does.
Answering questions not only provides value back to the Quora community but also helps increase your brand as an “influencer” in the space. Remember many are on Quora are there to learn and educate themselves.
For me, a great way to figure out what I want to write about is to see what topics are being asked about on Quora.
The benefit of doing this is you can easily then reference your own article through that question and build upon it from there.
Usually, the best way to reference is to provide an in-depth but short answer and then link the rest to your Medium blog if they want to read more about it.
It’s important once again to provide actual value to the reader before referencing anything so you don’t come off as spam.
2. Promoting On Content Curation Channels
There are many channels out there that allow submissions for content. Although some are paid, there are a few great non-paid options.
One of my favorite channels is ManyStories as it focuses on Medium articles specifically and allows direct sharing of all Medium content on its platform.
It’s super easy and quick and will most definitely get you some extra views for your stories.
3. Publishing On Medium Publications
This one applies more to the newer writers on Medium.
I see countless times where writers who just arrive onto the platform, write a story, post it and then see little or no results and either complain or leave.
That’s why the life of a writer isn’t easy!
This is why leveraging publications allow you to get your content to a wider audience (some publications have half a million followers).
If you get a publication to publish your content, it goes to their followers.
This means potential new audiences who will see your stories and even better is each publication has a specific niche they target. This means you can be even more specific to who you want reading your articles.
Remember its always best to target the correct target audience with your content.
For an easy way to see which publications are taking writers, check out Smedian — a tool to help you engage publications to help write with them.
4. Communities — Facebook, Linkedin, Forums, and Etc.
There are many awesome communities out there with passionate people for those in their space. This could be from broad topics like startups all the way to niche groups like horse owners.
I personally love the ones on Facebook as I find the groups much more genuine and keen to share value with each other.
There are plenty out there and the best way to find them is through doing some Google Searches.
For some reference, here are some of my favorite ones in the growth/marketing space:
- Product & Growth with Josh Fechter (also known as BAMF in the past)
- SaaS Growth Hacks
- Product Managers
My best advice is to stick to a few and engage the community initially and provide as much value back as possible (so no content promotion). Once everyone has seen you around for a bit, it’s ok to self promote a bit with your content if relevant.
It’s best however not to spam the group with your own Medium stories 24/7 and check the guidelines of each community as some don’t allow any self-promotion.
5. Your Own Social Media
This is probably the easiest one out of all of the above.
Your audience already knows you and you most likely have more than one social media channel.
The biggest question is: Why are you afraid?
Most people avoid this channel even though it’s the easiest way to share your content to a wide audience.
They get self-conscious with sharing their content to their network over random strangers over the internet.
The most important part to remember however is your friends and network can give you direct personal feedback on your content and would care more for reading it.
So what are you waiting for?
It’s time to finally post that article onto your Facebook or LinkedIn feed.