A “Triple-Threat” Writing Formula To Boost Your Reach
You Just Have to Know the “Vibe”
I heard a phrase the other day that made me stop and think: “Platform blindness.”
It was mentioned by Medium’s top writer, Tim Denning, who said writers mistakenly think they can re-publish their content onto other platforms to boost their audience reach.
While we might reach more people that way, we may not get very many views or followers — unless we match the “vibe” of the platform.
If we don’t even know the vibe, that’s what he means by “platform blindness.”
For example, Tim often talks about how LinkedIn is an untapped source of traffic. He said most people don’t realize that not many people post onto the news feed. That means when somebody does post, it gets a lot of action. However, he said people will sometimes think they can just post their Medium article onto a LinkedIn feed and expect it to takeoff.
They can’t…
Confession: I tried it. And he’s right, it didn’t work!
No, LinkedIn people aren’t there to delve deeper into the meaning of life like people on Medium often are. LinkedIn people are all about that Mighty Dollar, how to make more and network with others who also want to make more.
The posts that work there relate to money, office work or problems with bosses. The big splashes always seem to be someone saying they’re “going for it” and quitting their 9-to-5 to live the life of their dreams.
With that in mind, let’s see how we can successfully re-publish content.
A Real Life Example
I also write about fitness, and recently started a club for such. To promote membership, I wrote a Medium article about the club’s topic.
Story: “The Most Powerful ‘Fountain of Youth’ You Never Heard Of”
Notes:
• I chose TikTok instead of YouTube because Tiktok is more wide open to new creators, and I enjoy TikTok more, which is key.
• This result wasn’t typical, what often happens is a piece might takeoff on one platform but not the other two.
Results of Triple Publishing:
Medium: The original story garnered 1.3K views and received a warm welcome from the smart and cool Medium community. I think maybe a couple dozen people signed up for the Club.
Newsbreak: The repurposed article received 15K views and a lot of comments (but reading the comments at Newsbreak is not recommended, lol, as it’s whole different crowd). I added “Opinion” to the headline (required in this case) and made it a bit more “newsy.” The result? Hundreds of people signed up for the Club’s newsletter.
Tiktok: A video of one of the Club’s exercises went viral and reached 75K views, resulting in more memberships. I simply took an aspect of the article that would make a good video: demonstrating an exercise. Tip: start with a short close-up of you explaining what’s to come — faces engage people right away!
I summary, if I stayed in my safe little world of Medium, I would not have had the same results.
The takeaway: Medium is the best writing platform on the planet — with the best community, so always begin here. But don’t be afraid to tweak your best stories to match the “vibe” of other platforms to expand your reach, and get more for your same effort.
Which platforms? Simply choose the platforms that make you happy and feel good using them. You’ll be more likely to get the “vibe” right and succeed.
Thanks to Kristina God for the idea to use Canva to create a chart.
https://medium.com/@joe.moody/subscribe