LinkedIn or Medium? Yes.

Summary

Andy Raskin's article "LinkedIn or Medium? Yes." discusses the effectiveness of both platforms for content distribution based on his experience with publishing "What I Learned Crafting Messaging for 15 Startups."

Abstract

Andy Raskin, a strategic messaging consultant, shared his insights on publishing content on LinkedIn and Medium. He observed that a post on Medium, despite his smaller following there, received nearly eight times more views than on LinkedIn, where his network was significantly larger. The article on Medium continued to gain traction over time, unlike the LinkedIn post, which experienced a sharp decline in views after an initial spike. Raskin attributes Medium's success in content distribution to its interactive features such as highlighting, author responses, and notes, which facilitate viral spread. However, he also notes that LinkedIn provided a substantial increase in profile views and led to new customer acquisition. LinkedIn's targeted advertising feature is also highlighted as a valuable tool for reaching specific audiences. Raskin concludes that both platforms have their unique advantages and intends to continue using both for content distribution.

Opinions

Medium's user engagement features like highlighting, author responses, and notes contribute to its effectiveness in reaching a larger audience.
LinkedIn's targeted advertising feature is particularly useful for reaching niche professional audiences such as CEOs and VCs of Series A/B startups.
The virality and longevity of content on Medium may surpass that on LinkedIn, as evidenced by the continued growth in views over time.
LinkedIn's impact on personal brand visibility and direct customer acquisition is significant, as indicated by the 4x increase in profile views and new customers attributed to the platform.
Despite the initial imbalance in audience size, Medium's algorithm and user interaction capabilities can lead to greater content exposure compared to LinkedIn.
The choice between LinkedIn and Medium for content publishing depends on the desired outcomes, such as audience reach, engagement, or targeted marketing.

LinkedIn or Medium? Yes.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a piece called What I Learned Crafting Messaging for 15 Startups, on both LinkedIn and Medium. At the time, I had a much larger audience on LinkedIn — over 1,000 contacts and followers. On Medium, I had fewer than 10 followers.

Here’s what happened on LinkedIn. After an initial spike, the traffic leveled off, and after a week, it was basically gone:

Now check out what happened on Medium. Total views are nearly 8x what the piece got on LinkedIn over the same 2 weeks. Instead of dying out, views actually grew in the second week. (As I write this it’s early on the last day of the chart, and they’re still growing):

My Medium following was basically squat when I started this experiment, yet Medium found a larger audience for my post.

How did Medium do it? I guess you could hypothesize that Medium attracts people who are more inclined to read articles about my area of interest (strategic messaging/pitch hacking), or that people are, for whatever reason, more likely to read those types of stories on Medium.

My suspicion, though, is that it comes down to the many ways in which Medium translates user interactions into viral spread. Besides simply recommending a story, Medium readers can highlight lines, author responses, and hang notes on the text — all of which get shared on Medium and, not infrequently, on Twitter. I tweeted the LinkedIn version when I first published the piece, but of the 70 or so tweets that mentioned it, nearly all originated from, and linked to, the Medium version.

So, LinkedIn or Medium? Yes.

Does that mean Medium is a better content platform than LinkedIn? Not so fast.

While my piece got fewer views on LinkedIn, my LinkedIn profile enjoyed a 4x jump in views during the week, and saw only a slight falloff the following week. Those cumulative extra profile views were about the same, according to Google Analytics, as the number of new views to my website originating from Medium. I can attribute several new customers to the post, and they seem split evenly on whether they read it on LinkedIn or Medium.

Also, Medium currently offers no paid option for targeting posts to a defined audience, and LinkedIn is pretty incredible in that way. My customers tend to be CEOs and VCs of Series A/B startups, so on LinkedIn I can run a campaign to get the post in front of people matching that description.

For now, and for the foreseeable future, I’ll continue posting everything (including this) on both LinkedIn and Medium. If you’ve run similar experiments, I’d love to read your findings in the comments/responses.

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About Andy Raskin:

I’m a strategic messaging consultant and acting CMO for early-stage tech companies. I build messaging and positioning strategies, as well as sales, product and investor decks, for leadership teams funded by Andreesen Horowitz, True Ventures, First Round Capital and other top venture investors. I also teach workshops on strategic storytelling. To get in touch, visit http://andrewraskin.com.