Medium, it’s just between small and large. Medium is also quickly becoming, dare I say it, the most popular and exciting content publishing and social platform on the net. If you thought Medium.com was simply a WordPress made-simple for us all, then you have not grasped it all. Co-founder and CEO Ev Williams recently shared on Medium,
That’s why I say Medium is not a publishing tool. It’s a network. A network of ideas that build off each other. And people.
For those that are not familiar, here’s the skinny. Medium.com was launched in August 2012. Today it is a personalized blogging site that allows users to post their writings of more than 140 characters (expanding on your Twitter limits to say more) with embedded images (and videos). Users ranging from journalists to amateur cooks create, post, leave notes and add recommendations on medium.com. The site also helps users find their targeted audience with less effort.
First of all, with Medium.com you’ve got an audience from day one, as long as you’ve got a community on Twitter. See, what they got right at Medium, was combining content with social media, because what is content worth if it’s not “socially accepted”. Your posts automatically appear as “suggested reading“ on followers’ homepages and appear in the notification tabs. With Medium you don’t need to worry about SEO either. With Medium.com as your publishing outlet all you have to do is write.
If you Want to Write:
- Clean writing slate
- Add notes to collaborate and interact with others. At any time, you can share an unfinished draft with a colleague who has a Medium account by sending them your post’s draft link. They won’t be able to make changes, but they can leave feedback as Notes. These comments will remain private by default.
- Copy and paste your video links from YouTube and Vimeo and have them embedded automatically.
- Easily add images in a different styles – they take care of it.
- Create publications (like a magazine for posts from different topics).
- Turn any image into a link.
- Embed your Medium post on your website!
- Highlight the stars of the content.
- Did we mention text shots?
You can now highlight any passage on Medium to create a screenshot tailor-made for tweeting. https://t.co/vj3DSyEUU5 pic.twitter.com/tlSQpEGHDt
— Medium (@Medium) February 25, 2015
Medium will Thrive…and Keep Going Like the Energizer Bunny
Today marketers spend a great deal of time trying to be the Michael Jordan of three things: (1) social media reach and influence, (2) create content that resonates with people, and (3) distribution. With Medium every marketer can essentially accomplish all three feats at once. In the classical “blog post” the writer writes and waits for comments at the end of posts. There is no continuation or cooperation between the sides before publication. If there is, it’s private. With a more social process of writing and publishing, distribution becomes a more simplified challenge.
Medium is a network. Those posts that are well written encourage discussion. This is not CNN or BBC where the writer forgets about the reader. With Medium readers have become an integral part of the content. Who has the best social media profiles on the web? There is no one answer, but one thing is for sure: those that are at the pinnacle of social media success do one thing better than the rest of us (just like there is Festivus for the rest of us): interact more and more. So how does distribution become simplified? By enabling you to first of all embed posts, it’s a network in itself which means you don’t have to scramble to send out a newsletter, its catchy on Twitter and, like we said, you don’t need SEO. Interactions correlate with shares.
When you enable others to be a part of the process or to have their voice heard with Medium’s reactions, notes, and recommendations you also make readers more likely to share your content.
Content is not just blog posts. Those 140 characters are content. The images, GIFs, and podcasts are all content and we all need it all. The days of endless advertisements are over. Even banner ads are killing us. We can’t stand pop-ups (none on Medium!), and hence the playing field has changed. Content won’t continue to be long-form. Just as newspapers have lost their touch, blogging in itself in the “classic” version could as well. Regardless of if that does or does not happen, Medium is sitting pretty.
And they make awesome videos, wouldn’t you agree?!
