Summary

The article outlines a strategy for growing a Medium audience using tags effectively, without relying on an existing social media following.

Abstract

The author of the post shares their personal method for leveraging Medium tags to expand their readership. The central thesis is that Medium promotes quality content, and tags play a crucial role in organizing content into relevant categories, which can lead to increased visibility and engagement. The author emphasizes the importance of writing compelling stories and using tags wisely, especially for those in the Medium Partner Program (MPP), as it can lead to higher earnings from paying members who discover their work through the platform. While social media can amplify reach, the author argues that even without a large following, strategic use of tags can help content go viral on Medium. Additionally, the article suggests that writing on Medium can enhance one's credibility, serve as a marketing tool, and potentially lead to financial gain through the MPP and the promotion of personal services.

Opinions

Medium's business goals include converting non-members to paying members, retaining existing members, and increasing user engagement, which is achieved by promoting quality content.
Tags are vital for categorizing content on Medium, and their strategic use can significantly impact a story's performance and reach.
Social media can aid in content distribution, but it is not a prerequisite for success on Medium, as the platform itself can be used to growth hack one's audience.
Writing on Medium can be lucrative, especially when combined with the Medium Partner Program, which rewards writers when paying members read their content.
The author believes that every share on social media contributes to potential virality, regardless of the size of one's social media audience.
Writing on Medium is seen as a tool for building credibility, generating leads, and marketing personal services, which can be more profitable than relying solely on earnings from Medium.
The author encourages writers to invest a small amount of time to select valuable tags before publishing, as it can lead to unexpected success.

How to use Medium tags to grow your following without social media

Don’t have a huge social media following outside Medium? That’s ok, you can still use the Medium platform to growth hack your way to an audience. That’s what I did!

In this post I share my method of using tags to grow a following on Medium . And you don’t already need a following on Twitter or Instagram to do it!

First off, my central thesis is…

Medium wants to provide relevant content to users

After all, as a business Medium has a few goals:

It wants to upsell non-members to become paying members
It also wants to keep existing paying members happy with the experience
And it wants to increase the amount of time people spend on the platform

That’s why Medium promotes good content.

So your first step should be to write great stories. You won’t get far at all if you don’t learn the basics of good writing.

But Medium also needs to organize people’s interests into relevant buckets.

That’s where tags come in.

Knowing how to tag your stories could make or break your performance. It could mean the difference between going viral and barely getting 10 views.

Tags are especially useful if you’re already in the Partner Program. I’ve found that people who find my story through Medium are more likely to be paying members.

That’s how we get paid in the MPP after all.

The Importance of Social Media

Now don’t get me wrong, posting on social media is good in many way.

If you already have an audience somewhere, you definitely can leverage them to share your stories to their extended network.

Your followers might share the story with their followers.

Some of their followers will already be Medium members and others will share it with their followers, and so on.

When we talk about going viral, social sharing is a great way to do it!

I share every story I write on Twitter and Facebook even though I don’t have impressive audiences!

Because every little helps.

We can also use Medium for marketing

If we write about our expertise and share this on LinkedIn, we build credibility with our readers.

Our writing is a great tool for lead generation and promoting our own services.

And after my first few weeks in the Medium Partner Program, I can tell you it’s easier to make a living off our services.

Most Medium writers can’t live exclusively off writing on the platform.

But writing has so many benefits beyond making money.

So if you plan to write anyway…

Why not make a few bucks in the process?

Regardless of whether your strategy is to grow exclusively on Medium or via social media, adding tags are worth a shot.

You might as well take 30 seconds before publishing each story to find 5 valuable tags.

Because you never know when you could strike gold.

That’s just my take on using Medium tags to growth hack your audience.

Feel free to follow me if you enjoyed this story!

Not a Medium member yet? For only $5 per month, you’ll get complete access to all the great content on Medium.

If you sign up to Medium with my referral code, you’ll support my writing.

And I will be forever grateful ❤❤❤