How I Pick Who To Follow

Summary

The author describes their strategy for selecting who to follow on Medium to increase their own follower base and engagement, while also discussing the impact of content curation on their visibility.

Abstract

The author of the web content outlines a personal method for choosing whom to follow on Medium, a platform where they publish articles. They have developed a set of criteria for following other users, aiming to hit Medium's follow limit of 125 per day. These criteria include the presence of a personalized avatar, a green circle indicating a paying member, mentions of "coffee" or "humor" in the bio, and engagement with similar content or favored authors. The author also details their approach to reciprocating engagement, such as following back those who follow them and clapping for their stories. Despite the challenges of curation, which the author believes they have fallen foul of due to a story with controversial content, they have managed to grow their followers to 1.8k using this method. The author plans to focus more on the quality of their stories to attract followers and intends to refine their follow list to those who are mutually engaged.

Opinions

The author suggests that Medium's curation system can penalize writers with controversial content, labeling it as "curation jail."
They believe that a personalized avatar and a green circle indicating a paying member are positive indicators of an engaging profile.
Mentioning specific keywords like "coffee" or "humor" in a user's bio can lead to an instant follow from the author.
The author values reciprocity, following back those who follow them and engaging with content from followers who support their work.
They express a preference for humor-based content, both in their own writing and in the articles they choose to engage with.
The author acknowledges the time-consuming nature of following 125 new people every day and plans to adjust their strategy to focus on quality over quantity.
They are committed to reading and clapping for articles from followers, especially those who have shown support for their writing.
The author is not satisfied with the traffic received from Facebook groups centered on Medium and questions the level of engagement from members in these groups.
They are excited by new followers and hope to maintain this enthusiasm as they continue to navigate the Medium platform.

A highly complex algorithm

Eh… maybe it’s a ton simpler than that.

I’m not getting curated and if the other writers are correct, I am in curation jail. I’m very sure I did it to myself in the second story I wrote.

One of my first two articles was a short story about a loathsome character in the early 1990’s who swore, disrespected women and was a racist. This was all setup so that when the character you hated passed, the purgatory that awaited him matched how despicable he had been in life. The character was truly unlikable and it became a happy ending for the reader. From what I have heard, this type of writing raises flags and places authors in curation jail.

This means I need to find readers on my own.

Medium allows me to follow up to 125 people per day. I try to hit that limit every day, but I don’t just follow anybody.

What I look for when I choose to hit the follow button :

A picture or solid color in the Avatar area. Not the default assigned Avatar icon.

A green circle (almost complete circle) around the Avatar. This indicates a paying member that will garner you read time money if that is your goal.

If you mentioned the word “coffee” you are an instant follow. I can’t explain it. It just screams this person reads articles to me.

You mention the word “humor” in your mini bio next to the avatar.

You’ve clapped on articles that involve humor. 75% of my articles are humor based.

You’ve clapped on articles similar to the one that I am currently writing or plan on writing.

You clap for an author that I enjoy.

I get on average a good 10 follow backs usually within the first hour. I consider myself lucky if I get 25 by the time I am allowed to start following another 125 people.

I have set myself some guidelines in regards to people following me:

I will follow anyone that follows me.

If a new follower claps for my story, I will click on their name and try to return the time and effort.

I will always fully read any article that I clap for.

I make a list of author revisits for articles that made me laugh or stood out when I am returning the clap favor. I currently just went back and read more Roz Warren and Janie Emaus.

I’ve been growing my Twitter followers as well at about the same speed. I post in Twitter every time I publish a new article. There has barely been any traffic according to the stats.

I’ve joined a couple of Facebook groups centered on Medium. Some of these groups have a daily share thread for new stories. The purpose of this daily share is so other members can read, clap and have their own stories read as well. The traffic from this has been super low. I’m starting to think that a majority of the authors in these groups want reads without contributing back.

Update 3.22.2020 : I have now reached 1.8k followers using this method and I am now going to rely on my stories being the attraction for gaining new followers. While I would love to quickly gain members, it has become increasingly time consuming to hit 125 new people every day. I will continue to read and add writers I enjoy.

The final ratio works out to about 18 people follow me out of every 100 I follow first.

I am also going to trim my list so that I am only following people that follow me. This will clear up my “In Your Network” area and allow me to pay more attention and give loyal followers my read time.

I wish everyone good luck on their Medium adventure! I still get excited every time I see the green circle replacing my notification icon and hope that excitement never fades away.