Medium: Followers
Are Medium Followers Important?
Yes. And No.
A long time ago — when I was still in the Army — I was doing some course for promotion and we were looking at leadership.
“What about popularity?” I asked, wondering if — like high school — being one of the popular crowd would give a young sergeant more authority.
“Don’t worry about that,” the instructor replied. “That follows naturally. Be a good leader and you’ll be popular with the troops. Do it the other way around, you’ll fall on your ass.”
Followers are important only one time
Follower count only really matters when you are working on your first 100 followers so that you can get paid for your work.
After that, it’s wasted effort because Medium is constantly being gamed by scabby users trying to substitute for ability.
This is why stories about Medium and its metrics always do well. Users want to “crack the code”, discover the magic algorithm that will double their earnings with this one weird old trick.
Write a clickbait headline, promise to follow or clap, and just write about some aspect of Medium, and you will get a boost in views over a more substantial story.
This is very thin stuff but you will see thousands of users doing it.
Here’s the one to follow — if you are serious
A few, a very few, deliver. Casey Botticello is one. He knows his material backwards and produces good, illustrated diagrams on how to work Medium and other platforms to your maximum advantage. How to use kickers, for example. He has the experience, the numbers, the information to be a good source.
He’s popular for a reason, and that reason isn’t because he follows or claps. It’s because he is worth following.
My advice to you, Dear Writer
Find your niche, read the work of others, interact thoughtfully, don’t promote your work for the sake of promotion. You see Tom Hanks get on a talk show and babble on about you should go see his latest film and buy tickets until it hurts? No, he talks about the theme of the film, the good work of the director, anecdotes about the production, little details the casual viewer might miss. You know, interesting and entertaining stuff that viewers love.
Be interesting and entertaining and other users will follow you to see what you come up with next.
You might not have as huge a follower count as some but they will be devoted followers, not ones who will melt away as soon as they realise they don’t get anything from you but fluff and shadows.
