Last week, two good things happened, which inspired me immensely-:
• I crossed 1.1 K followers in Medium
• I crossed 1.3 K connections in LinkedIn.
That set me Thinking.
I had recently completed 7 months in Medium. This period had seen a slow but steady growth trajectory during my journey as a writer.
I had also recently completed 2 years in LinkedIn. This period had been a see-saw of sorts with intermittent peaks punctuating through a dreary plateau of low to no responses during my writing journey.
So, what is my REPORT card on these two platforms as a writer?
Which platform has worked the best for me so far?
So the above data clearly shows that, Medium has been a blessing in disguise for me. It has helped me immensely so far to realize my full potential as a writer.
Why has Medium clicked for me?
Why has Medium proved far more effective for me compared to LinkedIn.
Here is Why-:
Comment-Stories in Medium vs Comments in LinkedIn
One of the greatest advantages of commenting in Medium is that, the commenter gets “equally” respected as the writer. This is an exception from other blogging mediums like LinkedIn where comments are treated as a “sidekick” to the main story and great “value adding” comments usually get obliterated by the deluge of comments accompanying a great story.
Thus every comment treated as a story means that you can never be short of ideas and your every “comment-story” stands a great chance to get tons of recommends. The more the recommends, the more the visibility, simple as that!
Top Writer Status in Medium vs Influencers in LinkedIn.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of writing comment-stories in Medium is that, it is also considered by Medium algorithms along with your own stories. Thus Medium Algos not only consider your story recommends but also consider the recommends on your comments while elevating the status of the writer in the top bracket.
LinkedIn works in a completely different way. To make it big in LinkedIn, you need to break into the exclusively highlighted “Influencer” or the “Top LinkedIn voices” bracket which is very difficult considering that there are only 700 plus influencers selected by LinkedIn so far. Most of these influencers are top industry experts in their field and have a huge fan following surrounding them.
Many a time, competing against these influential “influencers” for the same blog topic puts you at a grave disadvantage, even though your post might be better than them. Medium on the other hand offers a level playing ground to all writers irrespective of the status.
Medium Publications vs LinkedIn Pulse
In Medium, the audience is grouped into silos, each of them are tagged to various publications. So we have an audience who is only following startups, we have an audience only following programming and we also have an audience only following personal growth and so on.
Your work need to be clear and concise enough to target a particular audience. Do not use “one size fits all” approach in Medium. It will not work. So identify the publication best suited for your expertise and get selected as a writer in that publication. Once you do that, you have already won half the battle. As the publication grows, you grow along with it.
LinkedIn on the other hand identifies top posts through LinkedIn pulse. Any post getting selected in any LinkedIn Pulse theme (leadership, self-improvement, technology to name a few) will be transmitted to a vast audience across the world and will thereby get a huge traction.
But the flip side is that, getting selected in a LinkedIn pulse channel is very difficult and mostly depends on the editors, the LinkedIn Algorithms and also the reader engagement the current post is getting.
Personal Stories in Medium vs How-To Stories in LinkedIn.
In Medium, expertise is GOD and the readers out here, expect that expertise to ooze out of your work in every word. But there is a catch.
Merely writing about some subject, after reading some books will not get you any brownie points in Medium. What readers expect here, is the tagging of that expertise to your life. They want you to love, hate and cry in life and see your raw form.
They want you to impart them life lessons, on how you overcomed hurdles in life and work using your expertise. Personal experiences always do well in Medium, no matter what is the subject. Any great post written in first person always does well.
LinkedIn readers on the other hand, seem to value more how-to posts. How-to posts offering tons of information and industry insights appear to do well in LinkedIn. The new algorithm updates in LinkedIn also seem to favor shorter posts compared to longer versions. But whatever be the length, posts on careers, work and job do better in LinkedIn compared to any other platform.
Sharing Feature in Medium vs LinkedIn Inbox messaging
Perhaps the biggest boon for aspiring writers in Medium is the draft sharing feature given by Medium. As a budding writer, you can share draft versions of your story to top writers and editors and seek their opinion on the same. This not only improves and polishes your work but also gives you the final chance to write your “best” piece before hitting the publish button.
The more you use this feature, the more you get inputs from great writers to enhance your writing and hence develop further in your journey. Medium writers respond wholeheartedly — believe me it works!
You can also use the LinkedIn Inbox messaging feature to get inputs from leading Linked writers and from your connections. But personally speaking, the responses I got were very few and that too not very helpful.
The inbox message need to be accepted by the recipient for any meaningful dialogue to go further and mostly Linked members will not accept any requests from unknown connections. The very purpose of LinkedIn inbox is more for business requests and feedback requests are hardly entertained.
Bringing it All Together
As a writer, the first and foremost objective should be to write quality content, one which resonates with the readers and touches an emotional chord within them. But having said that, the choice of platform on which to showcase your work is equally important. You may have a great blog post, but if you choose to publish it on a wrong platform, all your efforts will down the drain.
So rather than writing and praying that your luck will shine through, be a smart cookie and position your fantastic writing at a place, where it will get its due credit.
Always remember, great writers don’t just become great by their writing; they become great by their ability to identify the right audience for their labor of love. The more the audience values your writing, the more you rise up the ladder of success; simple as that!!
