he internet should reward quality thinking, not clickbait. That’s why we’ve created a better home for writers, journalists and experts. It’s simple to use, free from ads, and connects you to curious, avid readers, so you can focus on what matters: putting your best work out there.
That’s a quote from Medium’s site (bolding mine).
Here’s my – perhaps a little unpopular – opinion about Medium. It’s not a lead generation tool in the way your blog is. It’s not made for brands.
To most of the content marketers out there, it’s not worth the time.
But yes, I can name several brands that I got to know thanks to Medium.
Not because they republish their company blog on their profiles. Not because they use Medium as a place to showcase their product.
I don’t think people on Medium appreciate the promotion that traditional content marketing does. They won’t click out of Medium to visit whatever it is that you want them to visit.
People come to Medium for high quality, eye-opening, entertaining content that isn’t hell-bent on selling them something or get them to do something more than enjoying a good read. They come to Medium to connect with storytellers.
You won’t succeed on Medium if your piece is basically an ad.
Brands that I got to know through Medium do this (personal observations):
- Their founders have personal profiles – because people want to connect with people, not company logos
- Content published from these personal profiles is much, much more than your generic how-to guides. It’s long, deep, original and very personal; they often analyse one problem with multiple solutions to it (and none of them is the product they sell!). Honestly, if you want to get noticed on Medium, you need to put effort into your writing.
- They hardly mention their brands – and if they do, it’s usually something in lines of “at [Company Name] we solved this issue this way….”
- Stories are a big thing in Medium. Again, it’s in the site’s nature.
Another thing you could do is to simply go to Medium and check out profiles of a few founders. See what they do and how you could copy it – and whether it’s going to bring you a satisfying result in terms of traffic.