Medium is one of the smaller social media platforms available to businesses but it is still exceptionally useful in the right hands. As we’ve established in this series of articles, your social media presence should depend on the amount of time and workforce you’re willing or able to devote to it. Medium is not a platform that should be used exclusive of all others, since it appeals to something of a niche market. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth studying to decide if it’s right for you and your business.
What is Medium?
It is described as a, “Blog publishing platform used by a hybrid collection of people and publications, or exclusive blogs or publishers” to create a sea of one-shot blog posts on anything the writer chooses. Unlike a traditional blog on a content system like WordPress, Medium is more useful to people who don’t update frequently, who have an idea and want to be able to post it without the effort of building a following and maintaining a site of their own.
Well-crafted posts
The first point to note from a marketing point of view is that Medium requires a writer. Whether that’s you or someone you employ, the posts you create will need to be rich and eye-catching. Since posts are seen as stand-alone for the most part, each one will require crafting and aforethought and be expected to be of value in of themselves. When we discussed the benefits of YouTube for business in this blog series, we talked about the benefits of offering the user something – a skill, a piece of information or expert advice. A similar rule holds with Medium. Your post needs to be informative and thoughtful. You’re an expert in your field – so talk about what you know and ensure it inspires readers!
Readers engaged
When writing posts, make sure the word count is over 400 words, and is formed around one central idea or concept. Since Medium is organised by theme, your post will appear next to other posts of a similar subject, making it easier for your target audience to find your posts. The benefit of Medium over platforms like Twitter is that users who click your links are much more likely to be engaged with what you’re saying. Using the analytics tool you’ll be able to see exactly how many people read your posts, how long it took them to read it, and even how many users read all the way to the end. This makes it hugely valuable in tailoring future posts, since you’ll have a very clear idea of what works and what doesn’t once you gain more experience.
Embedding content
Another plus point for Medium is that you can embed posts from other social media platforms, meaning you don’t have to constantly produce unique content if you already have great content on other sites. If you already have that YouTube video taped where you talk about what makes your business great, you can embed it in a wider article about your industry and post it to Medium. Likewise with Twitter, Vine, Instagram and a host of others. Erik Devaney encourages all marketers to sign up to Medium using their Twitter or Facebook accounts, “That way all of your existing connections…will automatically be following your account once it’s created.” The easy synergy is another reason to give Medium a try.
Tags: medium, social media
