“Medium is a different kind of place to read and write on the internet. A place where the measure of success isn’t views, but viewpoints. Where the quality of the idea matters, not the author’s qualifications. A place where conversation pushes ideas forward and words still matter.” -Medium

Why Medium? Brandon Bertoia

October 28, 2015

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARYSummary

Medium is a middle length blogging platform that allows anyone to write about anything.

What makes Medium different than any other site is that it is oriented around the

concentration of the writing and not who wrote it, how it was written, or why it was written.

It allows people to find the audience they are trying to reach and let their ideas and opinions

flow without having to worry about their qualifications. People are also able to search their

favorite topics and find precisely what they want to read about. After reading, you are then

able to like, comment, share, and bookmark that story. What this encourages is people to

start connecting with others, bringing in the social media component. Medium is a unique

blogging and social media tool that is just waiting to take off.

Objective

Medium has been said to be the next big thing in blogging because of its unique

networking ability. The goal here is for businesses to realize this and begin using Medium as

an effective tool. It is the perfect way for companies to release updates and news stories

regarding their business and/or products.

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INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND How did it start?

Brought to you by the co-founder of Twitter, Evan Williams, with the help of Biz Stone and

Jason Goldman, Medium is a blogging platform for people to “express themselves in a

medium length format.” It was founded in August 2012 and has been growing and

developing since. When first started, the site was an invite-only for people to publish their

stories but still allowed the public to read various collections. As time went on Medium

opened up all features to the public so anyone could write what was on their mind. The

founders thought it would be a good idea to slowly release it to the public in hopes of

building up anticipation and creating a buzz. As this went on Medium also paid writers to

publish their stories through Medium to attract more viewers. Medium was strategic

because they did not release to the public which writers they were paying and which writers

were voluntarily using their site. Similar to Twitter, Medium was created for everyday people

who like to write and put out their work on a platform meant for passing around and

sharing. Medium was meant to be very simple, but attractive, and it certainly has

accomplished that because that is a main reason for users coming back. Evan Williams

created the foundation and the public’s love for writing and expressing themselves has

boosted Medium from there.

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How it works?

Above is a screenshot of the Medium website. As I mentioned, the creators of Medium

intended for it to be easy to use. The layout of the site is simple to navigate but at the same

time pretty to look at. The home page gives you the option to write your own story (upper

righthand corner) or browse through other people’s stories. For browsing purposes, you

have many different outlets to choose from. When you first create an account you check off

your favorite topics to follow, which Medium refers to as Tags. Both your followed tags and

Medium’s featured tags can be selected on the right side of the page. On the main part of

the home screen are the Trending Stories. Here Medium does a great job to display the

most popular stories from both your favorites topics and all topics. From there you can look

through stories and see when it was posted, how many likes and comments it has, and also

approximately how long it will take you to read it. If you are going to Medium with

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inspiration to write your own story you can click the ‘Write a Story’ button. You will then be

taken to the drafting page. Medium makes it extremely easy to write your own story. All you

have to do is type and it does all the formatting for you. Once you are finished you then

have the option to publish to Medium or share on other social media sites such as Twitter.

Medium makes it as simple as that.

How it Can be Used?

It is clear that Medium’s main users are individuals doing it as a job or a hobby. But what

people don’t know is that Medium can be extremely useful for businesses as well. Medium

is most appealing to individuals who are annoyed by having to go to multiple blogs to cater

to their multiple reading interest. Medium has an unlimited amount of genres that can fit any

readers interests. From the writers perspective, Medium is appealing for those that enjoy

blogging but don't want to commit to having a personal blog and maintaining it. Registered

users of Medium are not required to post regularly or even at all. Writers can write about

whatever they and whenever they want. Medium can be very useful for writers that are

looking to get exposure as stories can be circulated depending on engagement and views.

From the business perspective, Medium can serve as a great way to gain exposure and

connect with fans and/or their audience. An example of this could be a simple article about

a new product being released and then including a link back to the company website. Fans

are able to read about the new product and a buzz surrounding it is created.

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What’s good about it?

• Easy to use and attractive

• The ability to use Medium both on the computer and through the app

• Connections and networking opportunities through your writing

• Ability to highlight parts of stories and comment feedback for others (i.e. the collaboration aspect)

• You are able to evolve your ideas by having discussions with users sharing the same interests.

• New stories daily

• The ability for user to create their own personalized Medium experience

METHODOLOGY With my topic being Medium, the process of finding credible sources hasn't been the

easiest. Medium has been around for three years but has yet to really take off so there is

not an excess of material like there would be for an app like Twitter. In my methods of

research I started with taking an in-depth look at Medium’s own website. Sure enough,

within their website they have an about section where they give a run down on what

Medium is, how it works, and how to use it. I figure that that is perfect to use as a primary

source. My next step in research was to find out what the public thinks about Medium. For

this I took to a simple Google search to start things off. My biggest goal for my secondary

source was to find an article from a credible well-known source. I was actually surprised at

the number of hits I found. By just searching “What is Medium” a good amount of articles

came up that were reviews of Medium. After looking through the results I came across a

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few articles that I thought really stood out. Within these articles were insightful viewpoints

that I could use to my advantage in my report. I then moved on to trying to find a

multimodal source. I was a little skeptical about how well searching YouTube would work

but sure enough I was able to find a really valuable video reviewing the features and

benefits of Medium. Where I struggled throughout this process was trying to find scholarly

articles. I used search sites such as Business Source Complete and LexisNexis Academic

but was unable to find anything. Going forward, I will have to rely a lot on secondary

sources in which Medium is reviewed. Personally, I don't think that is bad situation to be in

because it is all about what the consumer likes or dislikes so it supplies me with good

viewpoints.

FINDINGS In my research, I found that Medium can be used effectively by businesses because of the

following reasons: (a) Medium allows businesses to publish information and gain exposure

from their audience; (b) Medium allows you to link your blog back to your companies

website; (c) Publishing news through Medium will create a buzz around your business and

you can gauge your audience’s interest. There isn't much data surrounding Medium but

they did conduct an experiment and analyze current content to reach the conclusion that

the ideal length of a blog post is 7 minutes and 1,600 words. The graph for this can be seen

below. If you then take a look at Medium’s website, a good amount of their stories are right

around that ideal length. Businesses can use that knowledge to create the perfect article

promoting their company without losing readers interest. Admittedly, Medium has yet to

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reach its peak so it challenging to imagine its full potential but if businesses begin to join

the Medium community I believe it will be extremely beneficial for them.

CONCLUSIONS Is it Worth it for Businesses?

The quick answer to this question is absolutely. With the use of blogging in society

continually growing, Medium can serve as a key outlet for business to promote, advertise,

and publish their company information. The next question businesses may ask is why

Medium over other blogging sites. Medium is easy to use, appealing to readers, and it is

much more casual than its competitors such as WordPress and Blogger. Here at Medium,

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you don't feel pressured to be constantly posting something. Once that starts to happen

readers may get annoyed and feel like the information is forced. Another major component

that businesses can take advantage of is Medium’s mobility. The smartphone app allows

users to read stories anywhere they are. So regardless of consumers location they are still

able to read about the newest product from their favorite company.

Why Medium?

Created by the founder of Twitter, Evan Williams established a blogging platform called

Medium that allows individuals or businesses to publish their thoughts in a format longer

than a tweet and shorter than an essay or report. You can directly reach your intended

audience and create connections with those readers. Medium allows you to write about

whatever you want, whenever you want, and as often as you want. I strongly believe that

Medium is an outlet that if used properly can be extremely effective for businesses.

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REFERENCES

Gueldner, G., Lee, K., Williams, E. (2015, October 8). About Medium. Retrieved from

https://medium.com/about/about-medium-9eac453da935

Lee, Kevan. (2014, March 31). The Ideal Length of Everything Online, Backed by Research.

Retrieved from https://blog.bufferapp.com/the-ideal-length-of-everything-

online-according-to-science

Madrigal, A., (2013, August 23). What Is Medium?. Retrieved from http://

www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/08/what-is-medium/278965/

McCracken, H., (2014, March 26). What Is Medium? Medium Is Pretty Cool, That’s What.

Retrieved from http://time.com/37586/what-is-medium-medium-is-pretty-

cool-thats-what/

Sonia M. (2014, February 16). What is medium.com?. [Video File]. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=updE4EbAxgw

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