The Real Reason Why You've Gained More Followers Recently on Medium

Beep beep, boop boop.

Have you noticed something different with your follower count as of late?

You've been getting new followers at an increased rate! You did it! You're making it as a writer on Medium!

But before you get your hopes up high, I have to break the bad news to you — Your new followers? They're not real. Sorry! They're bots. Yep! That's right — bots—fake profiles created to look like regular Medium followers.

No, not all of your new followers are bots, but there's been a decent amount the past few weeks. But why? And how do I know?

There are a few clues that point how which profiles are fake and how you know if bots are following you. These clues also point to insights on why this is happening.

New Followers

I analyze data for a living, and I recognize patterns easily. And in the past few weeks, I've noticed a few weird patterns with followers.

Recently, I noticed I was gaining new followers at a faster rate than before. Every week, Medium writers get an email called "Stats for your stories" that details how you performed on the platform a week prior. My email dated "Oct 1–8" stated, "291 people followed you in the last 30 days." Two weeks prior, the email titled "Stats for your stories: Sep 17-Sept 24" said that "188 people followed you in the last 30 days." That was a big jump to me!

On the Medium website and app, I was getting follower notifications constantly at an increased rate. I grew excited at the prospect of hitting a new milestone at this rate — 4,000 followers!

However, I noticed something strange with my new followers. For one, many of them were non-members. While a new non-member follower isn't weird itself, there were more than usual. Furthermore, many of these new followers didn't have a short bio.

At first, I didn’t think much of it. But every day that passed with new follower notifications, I noticed the same pattern of no short bio followers. As a founder of a publication that focuses exclusively on Medium writer biographies, I felt personally attacked! I didn’t know what to think of my new faceless followers.

To show you what I’m talking about, here are all of my most recent followers:

A few days ago, a fellow Medium writer posed a question in a Facebook group — "Do you follow back people who don't have bios?" Someone else noticed the same pattern too! It can't be a coincidence!

I decided to dig deeper.

Deeper

Upon closer inspection of my new friends, I discovered a few more exciting things.

For one, my recent followers had the most peculiar names. Sometimes, the names were gibberish: other times, only one first name.

The next thing I noticed was that many of my non-member Medium followers were all following around the same number of people — around 100. My friend in the above picture is following 99 people. Here are a few more of my recent followers who are following about 100 people in the past week.

A few more odd things I noticed? Very few of my new followers published stories, never mind the observation that even fewer had histories of engaging on other writers' stories such as claps and highlights. Some of the followers had social media profiles, but sometimes to Twitter accounts that even looked like bots. These accounts just endlessly retweeted stuff from other people with no individual tweets of their own.

Based on the amount of seemingly coincidental observations, connections, and happenstances around these new followers, I hypothesize that my new friends are not real, and they are bots.

But where do they come from? And why?

100 follower rule

In August, Medium implemented new Eligibility Requirements for the Partner Program. There are two requirements to be eligible for the Partner Program:

One of the main perks of being in the Partner Program is the opportunity for writers to put stories behind paywalls to earn money based on member engagement and read the time.

Getting paid for one's writing is one of Medium's most attractive features for content creators. While the potential to make beaucoup money is possible on Medium (some writers have reported earning four digits monthly), most writers do not make more than $100 a month on Medium.

To many writers from Western nations, where wages are higher than other nations, $100 from writing doesn't seem much. But to others, especially writers from third-world countries, a few dollars could mean everything.

In Nigeria, the average monthly salary is $1,136 in US dollars, and in India, the average monthly salary is $428. In these countries, a few dollars means a lot more and fuels a huge incentive to get as many followers as possible. For comparison, the average American makes $3,700 a month.

However, getting to 100 followers can be time-consuming and difficult for many people. It involves writing and engaging heavily with no immediate or guaranteed return on investment, both monetarily and with new followers.

So what's the best way to get followers quickly and effortlessly? That's where the bots come in. I wouldn't be surprised if many people, especially in third-world countries, were buying or programming (probably programming) bots to auto-follow accounts, including their Medium account, to pad their follower count.

Now, before you judge people who use bots to pad their follower count, imagine this scenario. You're a poor kid in rural India who depends on Medium earnings to put food on the table for their family. Each dollar matters, even if it's just a little. The changes to the eligibility parameters for earnings threaten your livelihood, so you do what it takes to become eligible, including follower bots. Perspective!

Now, I'm not suggesting that all writers from third-world countries are using or creating bots to pad their follower count. But I wouldn't be surprised if a few people were seeking to take advantage of the situation, especially if the much-needed money is on the line.

That said, I'm sure utilizing these sorts of methods is against Medium's terms of agreements and rules somewhere. If discovered, the perpetrators would probably have their accounts banned or suspended.

Follower bots are not a new thing to social media. Google follower bots, and you'll find product or programming solutions for social media sites like Instagram and Twitter. As a social media website itself, Medium shouldn't be an exception, and with the 100 follower count eligibility rule, the platform almost practically invited follow bots in.

What now?

A few months ago, a purge wiped out many followers from our profiles. Illumination lost thousands of followers overnight. A flurry of "Where are my followers?" stories flooded the website. Medium sent out an email explaining how fake accounts were removed from the website, resulting in many people's loss of followers.

It wouldn't be surprising for Medium to purge fake followers consistently in the future, recalibrating our follower count. It's also possible that Medium could implement more stringent measures to deter bots from registering accounts quickly — like the dreaded CAPTCHA test.

Whatever happens, it honestly doesn't matter. We will always have fake accounts and bots following our social media profiles. If purges happen, you still create content. If you notice a rise in followers, bots or not, you still create content. It was probably a waste of time for you even to read this article since there's nothing you personally can do about bots, regardless if you know about them or not.

When I asked about an increase in followers and bots on Twitter the other day, one fellow writer wondered if they should be sad that they hadn’t noticed it because they don’t gain many followers. I personally would rather have 0 followers than 100 fake/bot followers! I’m sure Medium will figure out a strategy to deal with them. Until then, write on!

It’s also entirely possible that you’ve not seen any of this and you’re growing your following with natural raw talent. Proud of you, either way!

I just hope that Collinsagbo is a real person and not a bot. It would make my day if he clapped this article to prove me wrong and prove he's a real boy!

Quy is a builder of brands, businesses, and people. In his spare time, he enjoys gaming, taking photos of the starry night sky, and writing on Medium. If you enjoy his work, subscribe to his list here and never miss a story!

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