If you are a content marketer, blogger, startup or small business with a name that doesn’t carry as much weight as the heavy hitters, you’re faced with the challenge of finding online marketing channels that are less traditional.
Why?
There is a content overload on the traditional channels. If you don’t already have an established following, you don’t stand a great chance of getting noticed.
You need a content marketing platform that gives precedence to the content, not necessarily just the author and his or her authority. This is where Medium comes in.
Medium is a content platform that is dedicated to quality content. Unlike some other platforms, it does not have landing pages, ads, and pop-ups. People come to Medium to create and read content, as well as for content distribution. Medium is not a social media site.
Medium can amplify quality content, generate a lot of website traffic and even email subscribers, depending on your objective and approach. Any content platform that is easy to use and has a built-in audience that is engaged and growing rapidly is surely worth your consideration.
Medium offers authors the ability to collaborate on content before publishing it. You could collaborate with anyone on Medium who is willing to give you feedback. Moreover, Medium allows readers to highlight text and comment anywhere, making published content interactive.
The good news is that anyone can post in Medium and it is free to use. Anyone can also search and approach a “Publication” (a collection of stories or posts on a particular topic) to submit content. If the content is appealing and fits the publication’s bill, it will get published. This, in turn, increases your visibility and following, and maybe even create new connections.
As an example, Business Daily is a Medium publication that publishes stories about start-ups, business development, and management. The publication gathers stories from Medium users and also allows users to submit content.
If you look at the Top 100 posts on Medium for any given month you will notice the headings are quite bold. List posts and posts with actionable advice do well. The more recommends you get from readers, the better for the content’s visibility.
Medium is not a paradise, at least not for everyone. Content that is detailed and actionable is paramount. So is finding a Medium publication with a decent following. It also helps if your content is backed by research data and relatable lessons learned.
A few words of caution: don’t rely solely on Medium for your content distribution and amplification. It should be one of the many avenues in your marketing checklist. If you are a new blogger, don’t start your blogging journey in Medium. After all, it’s a platform that you don’t own, and it’s limited in look, feel and monetization options.
Medium is a great platform to elevate awesome, bold content. Include it as part of your online marketing for additional exposure. Check out this infographic from YourEscapeFrom9to5.com for more tips on how to get the best out of Medium.