Sketchy Ways to Boost Engagement on Medium
This may be a controversial article
This article was inspired by a recent happening, just a few hours ago to be more specific — yes, and my initial instinct was to write about it.
I see Medium as one of those online PC games I liked to play when I was a teenager — you figure it out as you move along but there will be a few hacks here and there that can help you with your quests.
I’m only a few months in on Medium and I think I’m starting to figure out what those hacks are. Although, I know I still have many things to learn and improve on.
Of course, most are sketchy and I don’t urge anyone to do the same if you’re not comfortable or just a better human being than I am, but I thought I’d write it out for those who would like to have an idea.
I see Medium as a competitive platform:
Admit it, there are thousands upon thousands of writers on Medium and if you don’t compete, your writings will just get lost on the Medium abyss.
If you’re in this solely for writing and don’t really care if you get engagement or not, then you’re off the hook and I genuinely admire that.
But if you’re one like me, who would like to play this game on Medium and ride with the system then you may be curious why some newcomers do better on Medium than those who’ve been here for a long time.
Some answers may surprise you.
Here are a few sketchy ways you can “hack” engagement on Medium:
The Follow-for-Follow Brigade
When I was figuring out Medium, I’ve read a handful of “How to + Medium” articles. On one of those articles, one writer stated that Medium was different and that the community doesn’t participate in this shenanigan.
Maybe when the time it was written things were different but I’ve seen a few writers do this and it actually works — some (or most) people here will participate on the follow-for-follow train.
This can boost your engagement internally as people who follow you can easily see your latest posts.
Now this is one sketchy hack I don’t use, primarily because I want to see and read articles that I actually like.
Although, Medium shoves articles by their own editors on my face by taking up most of my screen, which is dumb and annoying.
At least include some good fiction on those, jeez.
I think some of those are less deserving than a few articles and creative stories I’ve read, but that’s just me.
You can put me on the record for that by the way.
I’ve read way better pieces from people who have fewer followers.
The Scratch-My-Back-and-I’ll Scratch-Yours Antic
If you’re new on Medium then you probably don’t know that we have a community on Facebook. Check out the list here:
Although non-verbalized, people will clap on your story and would want you to give the act back.
Trust me, you’ll feel it if it’s genuine or not.
You can participate in this antic though, I recently joined a small group kind of like this one, but I think most people there actually read each other’s work.
Maximizing Claps on Medium
Now this is the train I’ve gotten on since I started writing on Medium last August (2019).
I figured,
“Well, if I’m not going to do the follow-for-follow thing, then how can I improve my stats faster than usual?’”
The answer: I always maxed out my claps on Medium.
Most of us know that the clap limit per post is 50 claps but maximizing claps isn’t by the number of claps, it’s how many articles you’ve clapped.
I don’t know the specific number but if you’ve maxed out your claps, don’t worry, you’ll get it back the next day.
Alternatively, you can actually do this without being sketchy. Just read a ton of articles and stories then clap until you’re all maxed out.
Bumping Up Your Post on the Daily Threads in the Medium Facebook Groups
Remember the first line on this article?
Go check again, I’ll wait.
The thing that happened that inspired this article?
Yeah, I got booted out from one of those Facebook Groups.
Bumping up your articles on those threads make sense to me, people are awake at different times and would probably not see your post because of the amount of people who participate.
But, it does get annoying and I am an annoying person.
In the guy’s defense, he did let me off with a warning. It’s just so hard to tell which group is which sometimes.
I’ve gotten a stern and very direct personal message on Facebook after I’ve just woken up:
I try not to spam as much and get a lot of posts in from others before I bump mine up but again, it really does get annoying.
Beware.
Still, I’ll keep doing this to my pieces until they reach my fans-per-article goal.
I’m pretty sure there are other sketchy ways to do so, but they’re borderline creepy, like private messaging someone to clap for your article.
God, please no.
Again, I’m not encouraging anyone to do any of those listed above. This is for Medium writers who just want ideas on how to play the system.
If you have any more ideas feel free to let me know on the comments!
Enjoyed this? Check out some of my other works:
