How to Gain [Big Number] Medium Followers in [Short Timeframe]
(Let’s start with 25K in 7 Days)
Here are the two (or three if needed) steps to gain 25,000 followers on Medium in just seven days.
- Write a story that gets 1 Million reads.
- At the bottom, ask people to follow you (only 2.5% of them need to).
- BACKUP STEP — If only 1.25% of the people follow you (12,500 followers), then write another article that gets another 1 million views then ask those people to follow you too.
Ok, so maybe I’m being a little facetious (fesecious? fəˈsēSHəs?).
Spend some time on Medium and you’ll find plenty of stories with similar clickbait headlines. And the more I hang around, the more I find generic copy-and-pasting of others’ work. The stories are hollow, designed only to gain more reads, recommends, and followers.
Though that’s not to say every article teaching you how to grow your blog is unproductive. Plenty of successful people have written useful grow-your-blog articles. I just seem to find a surprising number of stories that feel disingenuous. They scream “More favorites! More followers!”
Though I don’t appreciate copy pirating, I’m not writing this article to complain or challenge others’ motives.
On the contrary, this calls into question my own motivations for writing. Why? Because motivation is everything. It drives the quantity and quality of work, and it shines through in every written word.
Why do I write?
To become a better storyteller.
As I started writing a couple of months back, I set two rules for myself. First — Only write stories based on my direct experience, thoughts, research, or knowledge. Second — Write consistently (publish twice per week).
Des Traynor — co-founder of Intercom and regular keynote speaker — wrote in a recent blog post:
“Confidence usually comes from both research and experience. For folks early in their career this means deep talks on specific areas, rather than broad “state of the nation” type talks that require a lot more credibility to pull off.”
The key to communicating in an engaging way is to start from personal research and experience. These are two of the foundations of confidence.
Why do you write?
Find a reason why you want to write. Then stick with it.
Whether your goal for writing is to gain followers, build a personal brand, or improve your communication skills, writing consistently is the only way to achieve success.
If you don’t have experience in something worth writing about (though I could argue that virtually anything can be spun into a compelling story), then go gain some.
Try polyphasic sleep. Create a business this weekend. Read more books. Talk to people. Travel.
Start to move outside of your comfort zone and you’ll be surprised at how many new experiences you’ll have.
