Medium welcome letter from Tony Stubblebine
Today, I read my welcome letter to Medium from Tony Stubblebine, the CEO of Medium. I know that this is probably a pre-set email that everyone gets from Tony, but I have a few key takeaways from this letter that I think might be important for anyone building a startup or running an organization. Here we go.
Know and listen to your users.
Tony begins the email by writing:
“This is Tony Stubblebine, CEO of Medium. I’m writing to thank you for becoming a Medium member. You may have not known exactly what to expect when you subscribed. Perhaps you read something you liked (or were unable to read something because of our paywall) so you decided to give it a try.”
This beginning paragraph is a signal that the team at Medium has been paying attention to users and has an understanding about the state of mind of people that join Medium. This email is therefore intended to give me a reason to stay on Medium(retention). What do you know about how people join your platform or become your customers?
Communicate your mission and vision with users.
Tony goes on to write that: “I’d like to give you a clearer sense of what we’re trying to do, why we think it matters, and how to get more out of it.”
He uses the simplest words to explain to me that he is going to talk about why Medium exists.
He starts by telling me why and how people use Medium,
“Thousands of times each day, someone will publish on Medium to share a story, an idea, or a perspective with the world. Some will be professional writers we’ve paid. Others will be experts publishing of their own accord. One might even be you, writing about what matters to you. Each has a chance to influence others, plant a seed, perhaps even start a movement.”
It is important to help your customers understand how best they can use your platform because it may increase your retention rate. The better I understand how your platform can help me achieve certain goals, the higher the chances of me continuing to use your platform. And the best way to do this is by telling me how other people use the platform. What do people use your platform form?
Then he explains to me how medium helps its users,
“We do our best to help these writers find the audience they deserve, using a large team of people that includes human curators, editors, and software engineers. As a result, over 100 million people read and connect on Medium every month. Our hope is that they understand the world more deeply by doing so and find ideas that can help them in their daily lives.”
This message helps me understand why I should trust Medium and that's because they have a team of people who help me find my audience and they have a large number of regular readers on their platform. The statistic of 100 million users helps to build Medium’s credibility. Why should your customers trust you?
Tony then shares why Medium exists:
“This is why Medium exists: To deepen understanding of the world and spread ideas that matter.”
It's a beautiful and meaningful mission statement and incase I am ever talking to my friends or anyone about Medium, I can easily share it with them, and they might join Medium. Why does your company exist?
Communicate why your mission matters:
Tony goes on to say,
“We pursue this with humility, because it is a job that will never end. But we also recognize the information we pay attention to plays a huge part in shaping how we think. It can divide us or empower us. It can lead to insight or spark anxiety.
There is a need today to rethink the systems that dominate our information landscape — and, therefore, our attention. Do they create more clarity or confusion? Do they mislead more than they inform? And do they serve the people or the advertisers that fund them?”
Communicating why your users should care about your mission matters gives them an opportunity to resonate with what you stand for and may increase their likelihood to keep using your platform. Why does your mission matter?
Tony ends by sharing Medium’s vision and what exactly they are building:
“Medium is creating not just technology, and not just content, but a new information ecosystem — one that is open for everyone to participate in, but without submitting to the lowest-common denominator. One that rewards quality over quantity. One that spreads important ideas and sparks intelligent conversations. One that supports nuance, complexity, and substantive storytelling that wouldn’t be possible anywhere else.”
As we share our mission, it is important to make it big. Having a wide vision like “building a new information ecosystem” can go a long way to guide how people think about your company both internally and externally. A vision always guides the thought processes within your team and can be a major driver for innovation. If your vision cannot accommodate innovation, it might be a good time to rethink it. You can check out this article about why a company vision matters (Importance of Company Vision In Business | Company Vision Guide (thriveagency.com)) What is your company vision?
This welcome letter from the CEO of Medium, teaches us how company leadership can communicate effectively and build a relationship with their customers and users. A couple of questions to ask yourself as a leader of an organization.
- What do you know about how and why your customers become your customers?
- What do your customers use your platform for?
- Why should your customers trust you?
- Why does your company exist and why does that matter?
- What is your company’s vision?
Thank you for making it to the end of the article. Hope you learnt something. Kindly share your comments on Twitter and LinkedIn( Jason Sentomero, FMVA | LinkedIn) . I look forward to hearing from you.
