Let’s Discuss Our Followers

On Medium, we often talk about our followers and ask questions about what we can do to create a following.

But, there are two questions we need to ask ourselves:

1. What is your definition of a following?
2. What good is a following if no one reads, recommends or responds to our writing?

Here’s the reason we need to answer those questions.

Some of you may laugh, but as of this post:

I have 664 followers

Sometimes, I wonder how many followers I would have if I used social media.

I’ve never posted my own profile or links to anything I’ve written on Facebook or Twitter. The only social media exposure I’ve received, if any, is due to the social media efforts of the publications I write for.

None of my friends or family, except my husband, know that I even have an account on Medium.

When I first started out on Medium, I was new to writing publicly and never imagined anyone would really want to read what I wrote. However, as my follower count crawled higher, I began to put more and more emphasis on the number of followers I had. That number had to count for something, right? But as I looked more closely at my stats, I discovered that despite the rising number of followers, the rest of my stats remained the same.

Then I found out where my followers were coming from.

I identified the one thing most of them had in common:

They were all new to Medium.

That’s when I began to explore. I discovered my name, or rather, my profile is offered as a selection in the onboarding process.

It all made sense!

That’s why I have so many followers, yet the rest of my stats remain the same. During the onboarding process, new members are selecting me as someone who’s profile they want to follow, but they aren’t reading anything I write.

Now I have to figure out which of the following is true:

Am I getting buried in their feed?

Is my content not good enough?

Are my titles not click-worthy?

If it’s the first one, it’s out of my hands. If it’s one or both of the latter two, I have the aptitude to fix the problem. It’ll take time to hone my craft. I’m not a professional writer; I’ve never been paid to write. I never studied writing formally. I’ll learn as I go. I have all the time in the world and nothing to do but write.

Here’s the thing:

I write primarily for enjoyment. I enjoy writing about my experiences, the lessons I’ve learned, the mistakes I’ve made, the pain I’ve gone through, and learning about myself as I write.

My hope is that someone may come upon my writing and relate to it. Perhaps what I’ve gone through or what I’m experiencing will help someone in a similar situation or someone they know. If it doesn’t help, at least they’ll know they’re not alone.

Here, on Medium, the number of followers a writer has is just that — the number of people who click “follow” next to a writer’s name.

What’s more important to me, is the number of people I reach.

In order to reach someone, I have to get them to read my writing. That’s why the number I pay the most attention to, is the number of reads.

Before you go, how did you answer the following questions:

1. What is your definition of a following?
2. What good is a following if no one reads, recommends or responds to your writing?

THANK YOU for taking the time to read my words.

If you would like to leave a response, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you like what you read, please hit the ‘Recommend’ button. It’s the cute little green heart. If you found this interesting, there’s more where this came from.