Shouting Out To My Fellow Online Friends And Neighbours Across The Globe

In response to Coffee Challenge; Why I am a pro shoutout movement

We’re all in the same online community as readers and writers on Medium. Essentially, that makes us online ‘neighbors’ from different countries in the same community. With a platform that rewards writers both new and seasoned, it’s no secret many of us came here to earn our share of the pie. Some of us came here simply to write, which is something in common that most of us here enjoy doing.

Writing online is commonly described more as a marathon than a sprint. It’s a long game that we’re all playing or a big mountain we’re climbing. Shouting out to other writers provides several benefits that I think would be great. Support the fellow mountaineers you’re climbing with, and one day when you need it, they’ll most likely help you back too. The best part? You might even gain a friend. That’s personally my favorite part.

Coffee Times Movement is greatly inspirational to me. Mainly because it embodies the ‘lift others while you climb’ motto very perfectly. From the usual shoutouts to the rules for this contest (achieve 1000 claps on the article by forming teams), I’m very glad to be accepted to be a part of Coffee Times. Coffee Times is one of the very first few publications that accepted me when I first joined Medium as a new writer, back when I was worried about joining publications.

Here are several reasons why I think shoutouts will be a beneficial practice for both you and the person whose work(s) you tag.

1. Shouting out other writers has the potential to build rapport.

Tagging the work of a fellow writer could encourage them to post a response in return and perhaps even start a conversation. They may check out articles from each other and gain a follower and fellow supporter on their journey. Eventually, as two writers get more familiar with the online presence of each other, this support becomes more natural and regular.

People tend to support the ones they know rather than a complete stranger after all, too. If you’re lucky, this might even build potential for a friendship on Medium, just with such a tiny gesture. I’ve had conversations with other writers that started with one of us enjoying the works of the other. It can happen. A shoutout is one of the ways that help with that.

2. Shouting out other writers encourages them to keep writing.

Being notified that someone who likes their work enough to tag it in one of their articles can really brighten a writer’s day. Having your work shown appreciation publicly may mean a lot to many writers as I, I believe. It’s not a big thing and sure is a tiny, tiny gesture. But knowing someone appreciates your work enough to feature it in theirs does serve as a tiny encouragement to keep on writing.

Even if they did it to abide by the rules of the publication, your article still has the potential to get more views when featured in another one by someone else. Think about the last time you felt when you were last featured in someone else’s article, it does feel good nonetheless.

3. Shouting out other writers features the works that you love and serves as a form of recommendation to your readers.

This recommendation could be something that you love or think could be helpful to someone. Who knows, one of your readers might be feeling mediocre and just need an article that talks about that struggle. By featuring this article, you might have just helped someone find just what they’ve been looking for. (Thank you once again, Cameron Gorrie, for this article greatly resonated with me and helped me feel much better.)

This tiny gesture helps to widen the exposure of the work to benefit not just the writer, but many other readers as well, even if you do not realise it. This may also help your audience figure out what you enjoy reading, not just writing about when you feature the works of others that you enjoy.

Supporting other writers while sharing the works I love is a major reason why I started writing and publishing this 4-part mini-series linked below. I plan to continue writing this series as I’ve grown this ‘favourites’ list to contain more than 18 articles to date.

To Wrap Up:

A simple shoutout may not be that deep, but it’s still a tiny gesture that has the potential to help people, readers, and writers alike. Everything starts small. The ‘worse’ thing that could happen is no response. But a typically received response would be a few claps, a comment, or a follow back and the best part of all would be a friend.

Personally, I enjoy shouting out to the writers whose works I personally enjoy for these reasons, and would not so much recommend the works that I haven’t read yet. To me, at the very least, shoutouts could still serve as a tiny, kind gesture to show appreciation to someone who has worked hard on their writing, and that tiny act in itself is worth doing.

A shout out to Coffee Times Movement for organising this contest and for the awesome and very supportive publication by Winston:

Some fellow writers that I would like to include in this article:

Priyanka Bhalshankar, Rosa de Saron C., Arbab Z., David Perlmutter, Deb Fiore, Cosmin Firta

VRITANT, Pam Winter, Yean Foong (M.Ed.), Sahar Elgamil, Carrie. A. Kelly, Elyssa Mechairia

Michael Rauscher, Tze Lin Sam, Danielle Hestand, BichoDoMato, Purbita Chakraborty, Rosalyn Morris

Jan Sebastian, Ellen Andaya, Justjulieandherblog

Editors of Coffee Times:

Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Dr. Preeti Singh, Yana Bostongirl, Drashti Shroff, Marrisa W., Sharing Randomly

Additional thanks: Thank you so much to Ravyne Hawke for publishing this piece within his publication Promptly Written. Thank you so, so much! Check out the publication below too! :)