avatarJon & Caroline | Ink-Stained Hearts | CityStonePub

Summary

Promoting articles on social media can significantly increase views and reads, as demonstrated by the author's personal experience on Medium.

Abstract

The author discusses the importance of marketing one's writing, particularly on platforms like Medium, to increase visibility and engagement. Through a comparison of monthly statistics, the author illustrates the positive impact of sharing articles on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as participation in Medium-related Facebook groups and newsletters. The results show a substantial rise in views, reads, and earnings, emphasizing that even basic marketing efforts can lead to a broader audience and more significant income. The author also touches on other factors that may influence an article's success, including publication in Medium publications, selection for further distribution, effective use of tags, growing reputation, follower count, and adapting to Medium's writing style and algorithm.

Opinions

  • The author believes that writing alone is not enough; marketing is essential to gain readership.
  • Engaging in social media promotion and community engagement is seen as a key driver for increased article visibility.
  • There is a suggestion that consistent marketing efforts correlate with higher earnings and readership on Medium.
  • The author questions the sole reliance on writing quality, implying that marketing plays a crucial role in an article's success.
  • The importance of being part of Medium publications and receiving the "Chosen for further distribution" tag is acknowledged, though their impact is considered variable.
  • The author advocates for the strategic use of tags and building a portfolio to attract more readers.
  • The article implies that time spent on marketing, while potentially time-consuming, is a worthwhile investment for writers seeking to expand their audience.
  • The author challenges the notion that writers cannot market their work effectively, providing examples of simple marketing strategies that can be implemented by anyone.

Will Promoting Your Articles On Social Media Increase Views And Reads?

Does this bring you success on Medium?

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

Why are you here?

Let me rephrase that, why do you write — on Medium, or anywhere else? The bulk of this article is about this platform, but many of the broader suggestions can apply elsewhere.

Maybe your response is:

I just love to write

I’m a creative person and this is how I express it

Writing is my career, and I want to make money from it

It’s a bit of escapism

There will be plenty of motivations and all of them have their place. But alongside this comes one of the biggest dilemmas writers face — I know I have.

I’ve just finished the best thing I’ve ever written — how am I going to get anyone to read it?

Or, put another way:

How do I market my work to reach new readers?

I’ll be honest, when I joined Medium my focus was on understanding the platform, realising it was a means for me to express my thoughts and write on new and interesting topics, and to write articles I was proud of.

The thought of marketing them — at that point — was somewhere down the road behind me.

The realisation

I wonder how many of us had the Kevin Costner moment from Field of Dreams when we first started writing here?

“If you build it, they will come.”

Oh, and I know that if you listen to the actual words, it’s “If you build it, HE will come” — but the phrase has changed over the years as its meaning has dropped into common usage for certain circumstances.

So what’s the relevance? I had the notion I could just write an article and that the thousands of Medium readers and writers would flock to consume my words.

It doesn’t quite work like that, does it? That’s why, even if you consider it a “necessary evil”, you will need to do some marketing of your work if you want it to be read.

What brings this point home, and again I imagine I’m not alone here, is when I look at my story stats for the period before I realised I needed to get my promotion hat on.

I published my first Medium article on 2 May and as of writing this piece, have now got 47 on the platform (including this one). How did I do in those early days when I was figuring out how it all worked?

Below is the list of articles I published during May in chronological order and the corresponding views and reads each has had.

Grand Total: 17 articles with 958 views and 282 reads.

Or, for those who chose Option 3 (making money) from the list above, this amounted to $12.75.

Add a dash of marketing

The details above may or may not be a typical first month on Medium but let’s now think about what marketing and promotion went with the first articles I wrote, and how this compares with your experiences.

I have a very active presence on LinkedIn so began sharing links to my articles with a synopsis on 11 May, starting with “We Need to Talk About Race”. This created an immediate rise in both views and reads and I extended this by sharing the links to my Twitter and Facebook accounts at this point too. You can see a steady rise in readership from this point, so it had a positive impact, although far from “viral”.

For all of you questioning the method of what I’m describing, I’m aware there are many confounding factors and other elements at play. I will come to these at the end.

Let’s look at how June compares — a month where the number of articles I wrote dropped to 12, but my marketing efforts increased. Late in June I began writing “short form” articles (up to 150 words) in The Shortform, but have not been promoting these at all, so won’t include them here, taking the number of articles down to 10.

Again, I’ll use the number of views and reads as an indicator.

Grand Total: 10 articles with 1750 views and 710 reads, with a little over $50 earned.

In marketing and promotional terms, I continued sharing each article on the channels I used in May, but also began posting links in the many Medium-related groups on Facebook. These were new communities for me where talented writers reciprocate in sharing their work — you read mine and I read yours! Add into this that in June I began featuring links to my articles in my monthly newsletter.

The outcome was an 83% rise in views, a 251% rise in reads and a four-fold increase in cash earned.

OK, I won’t be retiring any time soon, but a step in the right direction. And yes, I’m coming to those other confounding factors which have an impact!

Now let’s finish with July, where the marketing approach mirrors June’s.

Grand Total: 11 articles with 1823 views and 618 reads, with a little under $58 earned so far.

So, views are up a little, reads are down a bit, but income is up at two-thirds of the way through the month. The take-home here is that marketing has sustained the viewing and readership and contributed to a 16% rise in income.

Before you say it, yes, in the grand scheme of things the numbers and money involved are relatively low. But from a standing start, and by undertaking some easy marketing by posting on social media there is a discernible and positive impact.

Yes, but what about…

Now let’s talk about the things you’ve doubtless been thinking as you’ve read through — the other confounding factors — which have a part to play alongside your personal marketing.

  1. Publications: The first four of my articles, and seven in total for May, were not part of a publication. It takes time to get accepted into these, especially the bigger ones. I have been working on this and now write for a number. While not a guarantee of increased visibility, it won’t harm you to feature in publications with followers already in place.
  2. “Chosen for further distribution”: I’m sure most of us take a sneaky look at whether our latest article has received this tag, if nothing else it gives a bit of an ego boost, even if it was a bot that decided. There are different views on whether this has a substantial impact on your views. For my “Top 10 most viewed” articles, six were “Chosen for further distribution”, so for me, the jury is still out on its impact.
  3. Better use of tags: the game of finding the sweet spot for the best tags that get you noticed is another daily challenge, and sometimes the lesser-used tags may increase your views, but again, it’s hard to define with any certainty.
  4. A bigger portfolio and a growing reputation: You may say as your back catalogue of articles grows, you’ll pick up extra views from new readers discovering your work for the first time and investigating what else you’ve written. It’s hard to disagree with the logic, although for my “Top 10 most viewed”, I wrote five in July, so who knows.
  5. More followers = more reads: You like to think as you find your way on Medium you’ll pick up followers on the way, so there is some potential truth in this, but it’s not guaranteed.
  6. You’re getting better at writing the “Medium way”: Writing on this platform often feels like a game between improving the standard of your work and outwitting the algorithm, but as the saying goes “practice makes perfect”.
  7. It’s the reading time that counts: As my July figures show, I’ve had fewer reads but more income as my reading time has been higher, so the method of looking at views and reads aren’t the only consideration — but if you’re writing engaging content, the hope is reading time will increase as well as your bank balance.

Did I miss any? Yes, I’m sure I did. But what does this tell us?

My take-home from this rather unscientific analysis is even basic marketing and promotion of your work has a positive impact on the reach, visibility and engagement with your writing.

While there are many reasons we choose to write — whether on Medium or elsewhere — I would bet most of us want our work to be read. The discipline of marketing is complex and broad, and I use the term here in the loosest sense. You may think: “I know nothing about marketing, so I don’t know where to start”.

With that in mind, I challenge the suggestion that any of you couldn’t replicate the “marketing” examples below to give your articles a reading boost.

A post to my Twitter account (Image: Miles Etherton)
A longer post to my LinkedIn account (Image: Miles Etherton)

Final thoughts

As with lots of things in life, you get out what you put in. Most of us will want to devote our time and energy to writing the best articles we can and marketing is often an unwelcome distraction, but it is a “necessary evil”. The only downside I can see is another pull on your time.

But ask yourself this question. If you get more readers enjoying your work, isn’t a little marketing time worth the investment?

If you enjoyed my article, here are a few more from me that hopefully catch your interest!

Social Media
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Strategy
Writers On Medium
Writers On Writing
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