Medium Matters: What is the Best Way to Use Medium’s Friend Links?
Should we use them for family and friends only and should they be the main link we use when promoting our Medium articles across the internet?
As I gear up to start actively marketing my medium work via social media and other avenues, the question of what I should do with the friend links keeps coming up,
Do I just use them on my personal accounts only? Should I use the friend links on all of my social media accounts? Am I shortchanging myself and by extension other Medium writers if I do so?
There are no easy answers, and as I move forward with more offsite marketing, it’s one I’m trying to resolve.
So let’s start at the beginning.
What are friend links
If you’re new to Medium and don’t know what the heck I’m talking about when I say ‘friend links,” they are the links that Medium generates after you publish an article that you can use to give to friends and family so they can bypass the paywall and read your work.
Also, all links on Twitter are friend links even if you use the paywalled link to the article. For reasons Medium didn’t fully articulate they changed the policy a while ago, and anyone who is accessing a Medium link on Twitter will have full access to the article whether they have reached their preview limit or not.
My guess is Twitter delivers a significant amount of traffic to Medium, and by having those links paywalled, they were taking a pretty big hit to their views, so the change was made. Twitter aside, Medium is clear that the link should only be used to allow your those to view your work with ease.
With that said, it’s quite common for people to use their friend links on all their social media accounts to promote their work. And that practice raises some interesting questions.
The case against using friend links
In the Medium-verse the opinion on what to do with friend links seems to be split. For some writers getting the largest audience possible is the primary concern, so sharing friend links across social media is the right choice.
For others, why allow free access to your work when what you need is for paid members to view, read and clap for your articles?
Using friend links on all your accounts likely means a person isn’t going to sign up for a Medium account to get access to your work.
Why would they? You’ve made it easy for them to have access to all your articles, no payment necessary.
Also, with so many people, who are likely not Medium members reading your work, the extra eyeballs aren’t likely to gain you new claps from people who would earn you money,
The case for using friend links
Casey Botticello of Blogging Guide had a different take in his 59 Medium Writing Tips to Improve Article Performance:
“You can share a Friend Link directly to friends or through any social media platform, boosting article performance.”
There’s a theory among writers that if your article gets enough traction in that first hour (view, reads, claps) Medium’s algorithm will reward you with more eyeballs on your work, making the popular list and showing your work to more of the people in your network.
These are all valid points; however, I’m not sure they make up for the loss of potential of gaining new members by giving free access to all of your articles. Now if you’re looking to build a non-Medium fan base, particularly if you’re building an email list, then the more people who can access your work the better.
What am I going to do with my friend links
As it stands, I think I will use the friend links on my personal account and the regular links on my business accounts.
Since all Twitter links are friend links the hybrid approach allows me to have the benefits of using friend links and non-friend links in my marketing efforts and I don’t feel like I’m cheating the system and (ideally) keep down on non-member claps.
For me, my best-performing articles have been those that generate much of their traffic through Medium’s ecosystem. Those articles that have received a lot of outside eyes have not performed as well, though they do seem to have a longer shelf life.
In the end, it’s just not about attracting an audience but attracting the right audience, one that will views, read, and clap for your work while also making you money.
