How to Promote Your Medium Articles on Facebook
Never EVER drop your links and run.
When I was new to Medium, I desperately wanted to increase my readership. I posted links to my articles on Facebook every day, but despite my best efforts, this was not increasing my readership. Back then, Medium earnings were based on claps and it was clear that many people were not reading articles, but were clapping in the hope you would clap theirs in return.
Medium changed the way it calculated earnings and now it is based on reading time. This has made it harder to promote articles on Facebook. Unfortunately, many people drop their links and run. And with most writers using Facebook as their main platform for promotion, Medium Groups are flooded with links and it’s very easy for your work to go unnoticed.
I promote my work daily in the Medium Facebook groups and I find this beneficial. For the past year, I have made at least $100 a month. Last month, I had my best month ever and made over $500. I’ve come a long way since my first month on Medium in April 2019 where I made a total of $2.50.
I’m not the best writer on the platform by any means. And I’m not the most experienced. When I started writing on Medium, I hadn’t written anything since I was a teenager. I believe if I can do this, anyone can.
Making any money from Medium is difficult, but with consistency and perseverance, it can be done. But you have to put yourself out there. Nobody is going to know you exist unless you promote your work. Success does come from being committed to improving your writing, but there is no denying that self-promotion goes a long way.
Promotion isn’t as simple as just posting links to your work. Here is what I wish I’d known at the beginning of my Medium journey when I was struggling to get noticed.
People do judge a book by its cover
In a sea of Medium links under share threads, you need to make your piece stand out. Vague titles and over-used stock images aren’t going to encourage people to click your link.
Make sure your title is capitalised properly. Use CapitaliseMyTitle to make sure it is done correctly.
Vague titles don’t attract attention. Would you click on an article called “Trust”? Or would you be more inclined to click on an article called “Life After Relapse: How I Learned to Trust Myself Again”? Make sure your title lets the reader know what the article is about. CapitaliseMyTitle also has a Headline Analyzer Tool which is useful if you are unsure about your title or subtitle.
The image you use is also important in persuading readers to click on your link. Medium has a function where you can search for free images on Unsplash. Unfortunately, this means many images are overused. Sometimes this discourages people from clicking on your link because they have seen that stock photo hundreds of times.
You can find free to use images from Pexels, Pixabay, and Rawpixel. If you need images of famous people, Wikimedia Commons is the best source for this. I would advise that you don’t select the first image you see, because many writers before you will have done this. I like to browse a few pages to find one that I haven’t seen before to ensure I don’t pick an overused image.
Why should people read your work?
You’ve got a specific title and a good stock image. So why should people be interested in the content of your article?
In my experience, more people click on my piece if I include an excerpt before the link. I pick a line or two that I know will draw the reader in without giving too much away.
For example, when I promoted my personal essay “My Dad Chose Me Over My Abusive Mother. But It Was Too Late” I included this excerpt:
“I had waited twenty-six years for him to choose me. I wanted to reply “thank you dad”, my inner child overly grateful for his crumbs of affection that he only gave on his terms.”
I published this piece on August 6th 2020. Exactly a month later, it has earned $210.81. A large part of this is down to many people resonating with my story. But promoting myself helped a huge deal as a lot of traffic came from Facebook.
Choose the best Facebook group to promote your work
When I was new to Medium, I joined every single Facebook group. I thought posting my links in more groups would create more reads. This was not the case. These are the groups where I’ve had the best experiences in terms of support from fellow writers.
This group has 2.2k members and daily share threads where you can promote your work. They have SelfPromoMonday where you can promote yourself outside of Medium, such as your personal website or email list.
This group has 3k members and morning and afternoon share threads where you can promote your work. They also have threads for sharing your publication so you can gain more followers and/or writers.
Please note that this group is a space for cis women, trans women, and non-binary folks.
This is a smaller group with 673 members and like the other groups, it has daily share threads. Every day there is a second share thread with a theme, such as social issues or creativity, where you can promote your articles that fit that theme.
This a smaller group with 916 members. It has daily share threads with strict rules. You must read at least one other person’s article and the admins will remove your link if you haven’t supported other writers.
This is one of the oldest Medium Facebook Groups and has 2.1k followers. There is a daily share thread and many of the members post questions in the group and many of the answers are from experienced Medium writers.
Support your fellow writers
You can’t just take from the community and expect to be successful. It is important to network with fellow writers and build relationships. The Medium Facebook groups are perfect for this.
I like to read at least five articles shared on Facebook. After reading, highlighting, and commenting on Medium, I will leave a comment under their Facebook link to tell them how much I enjoyed their work. This has helped to build a rapport with other people and I’ve even made friends.
A common mistake people make is commenting under someone’s link telling them to check out their Medium profile or linking their article even if it’s completely unrelated. This is both rude and offputting. If people want to check out your work, they will. You can’t force them. There’s a difference between putting yourself forward and pushing other people away.
This isn’t a substitute for good quality writing
Doing a good job of promoting yourself isn’t enough to increase readership. You may get people to click on your link, but if your writing is poor quality, they won’t stay.
When I first came to Medium, I wrote for myself. My pieces read like journal entries and that’s why I wasn’t getting a lot of engagement. It is essential you write for the reader. If you “trick” people into clicking on your link by having a good title and photo but no substance to your piece, you won’t build a following. People don’t like disappointment, so when they see you promoting yourself in the groups again they won’t click on your links if you have disappointed them before.
Before you promote your work, you need to be able to answer the following question:
When they have clicked your link and opened your article, why should they stay?
