Readers Are What We Need, More Than Followers

Sharing my perspective on how to create more readers

It is good to see our score of followers increase. After reading many reports from others in Medium about the risk of not having enough readers, we need to focus on building readership rather than mere followers.

To develop more readers, I believe we need to pay attention to the following areas:

1. High-quality content

If we want our readers to take our writings seriously, we need some originality in our sharing; preferably, they are our personal stories. If it is an informative article, it has to be accurate and well-researched. If it is poetry, then a fluent language standard is preferred. For a novel, then a good and captivating story to share.

The content needs to be engaging and must resonate with the readers. Once the readers can identify what they like to read and relate with you in your writings, it will be natural to have more followers and readers.

2. Know what interest our audience

For this reason, we must try to write on diverse topics. We will get feedback through claps and comments when we try various topics. The feedback will allow us to determine what our audience likes to read. It may take some time to get the correct input, but since we can write often, it will allow us to survey.

Of course, the topics we share must also interest us, not just the audience. For example, if you have a hobby like photography, you can share your experience and watch the feedback from the comments. After some time, you will know if you should consider writing about your photography or something else.

If we can personalise our writings, our readers will start responding to us.

3. Observe how successful writers write

We can make some effort to read what other successful writers write. Look for those who have a bigger following than ourselves. If we enjoy what they write, ask ourselves what attracts us to how they write. The reasons we discover for ourselves may also be why others may pay attention to what we write.

Every writer has a unique communication style; once readers enjoy reading your content, they look forward to your next post. Here I also learnt one additional point. If you have a writer you enjoy reading, you can also search out some of the writers they follow. There is a high possibility that some of these writers can resonate well with you too.

So if we enjoy writing, we must also learn to appreciate others in their writing. This appreciation will motivate us to improve and do better each day.

4. Build consistency in writing

To create readership, we need to be regular writers. Once you achieve a certain degree of readership, they will look out for your writing. It isn’t very reassuring for any reader who appreciates your writing to follow you and then realise that you only write once a month.

I am sure any consistent reader will like to follow someone who frequently writes because they have followed you and find your writing worth reading. So we should not disappoint our readers by not communicating for long periods. It takes two hands to clap for any positive growth in readership.

In summary, I am still learning, and I believe many of your who read my article are also active in your writings. Let’s share our perspective on building more readership as time passes.

I hope the points I have shared can be a good reminder to myself, and hopefully, they are also helpful to you.

Thanks for reading. Here are more of my writings: