100 Followers: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
I reveal how to analyze and leverage my Follower Plan to acquire 100 followers, reach your follower goal, and join the Medium Partner Program (MPP).
This article answers these questions:
- Why would I capture follower statistics?
- What can you learn from my statistics that can help you?
BACKGROUND
In 2022, I started my Medium writing journey. I published several articles on Medium and Substack. I even got some followers.
After two months of writing, I wasn’t happy with my results. I was struggling to find my voice.
I did what every sensible writer does at that point: I deleted everything.
In January 2023, I determined my audience, message, voice, and goal. I reset my profile and About page. I was ready to begin again.
I received an email from Sinem Günel for her 5-day Online Writing Challenge (OWC). The timing couldn’t be better — this was just the motivation I needed to get writing (and maybe learn something along the way).
ONLINE WRITING CHALLENGE (OWC)
The OWC started on January 23, 2023.
I had acquired five followers from my false start the prior year. I was ready to build on that to reach the elusive 100 followers and join the Medium Partner Program (MPP).
The course was excellent, reinforcing many lessons about how to write on Medium.
One of the challenges was to interact with other writers. I am not an avid social media participant, so this was a stretch goal.
Another challenge was to add your information to a google sheet of all the Challenge participants, review the profiles of other participants, and find writers you can relate to. When I added my details, I was 85th on the list.
As I perused the list, the marketing clue stick hit me. It was a list of writers that I had something in common with (the Challenge) — I should follow them all.
WHY CAPTURE FOLLOWER STATISTICS?
The conventional success wisdom is that you Plan, Execute (do something), and harvest the Results.
I believe there is an important aspect missing.
Life kicks you in the n*ts until you learn the lesson.
- Gary Bozek (1990)
To learn and improve, you need a feedback loop in your process.
You may be doing everything right, but you can’t answer the question, “Why?”
You can’t assess what changes improve or impair your results. You will make blind decisions and not exercise control of the situation.
Figure 1 captures my daily actions in the “Follow Others” column. By the time the clue stick hit me, there were 151 participants on the list. I followed them all.
I checked the sheet daily for new participants. When they added themselves, I followed them.
The second column, “New Followers,” shows the number of writers that followed me back. In those 19 days, I received 46 additional followers.
Great!!! Halfway to the 100-follower milestone.
But now what? Within the first week and a half, most participants had added themselves. The stragglers (some were brand new Medium writers, so they were adding their Profiles and About information) caught up in the following week and a half.
This vein ran dry…
ANALYZE THE FEEDBACK
The data represented the classic implementation of the sales funnel. You put a lot in; you get a little out!
I received 46 followers after following 181 other Medium writers. The response ratio was 25.41% (46 divided by 181).
Therefore, to acquire 49 more followers to reach 100, and if the response ratio held constant, I would have to follow 193 Medium writers (49 divided by .2541).
Time For A New Plan
Around this time, I read an article that proposed following other writers without any expectation of a follow in return. You may see altruism; I see marketing!!!
Anyone who has worked in Sales knows it’s a numbers game. The more you put in, the more you will get out.
It’s the same with getting followers…
THE NEW PLAN
Medium has a hard limit  -  you can only follow 150 other writers per day (as of Q1 2023). On the 151st follow, Medium gives you a message you can’t follow anymore. The limit appears to reset at midnight; the next day starts at zero.
Since there is a variable delay in how soon a return follow occurs, I decided to skip a day between my bulk follows to associate the results more directly with my actions. I was trying to minimize skewing from the long tail.
I was dancing around the Medium limit initially  -  I didn’t want to upset the all-powerful Medium algorithm by repeatedly bumping against the limit.
With the confidence from the OWC and getting halfway to my follower goal, I began writing and publishing articles.
What Happened?
Figure 2 illustrates the actions and results for eight days of executing the Follower Plan.
After four days, I was almost there (98 followers on February 14). I could have stopped at that point and let the long tail deliver the remaining two followers, but I’m risk-averse, so I continued.
It appeared to be the right decision because it was another two days before my count was comfortably above 100.
I (re)started my Medium writing journey to acquire 100 followers on January 23 and completed the goal on February 16. I acquired 103 followers in 25 days if I subtract the five followers I started with from the 108 on the 16th.
The new column, “Unsolicited Count,” is for followers I didn’t pursue. They read my published articles and decide to follow me on their own.
If you subtract out the five I started with and the six unsolicited followers from the February 17 total, the Follow Plan delivered 109 followers in 26 days.
The Long Tail
February 18 was the last day I actively followed other writers as part of this Plan.
Followers continued accumulating; there were another 12 followers up to March 1.
Figure 3 details the long tail in the “New Followers” column. Over that period, I also received an equal number of “Unsolicited” follows from readers. The Response rate is 1.51% (12 divided by 797).
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
I tracked the follows and return follows to provide feedback to understand if it was a successful strategy. In my opinion, it was.
Many variables contributed to these numbers. Understanding them will give you insight into human nature and how well it will work for you.
First, you should note the Response Rate varies. It was 25.41% with the OWC group and 10.71% with the random Medium writer group. What contributes to that variance?
The OWC group is known in Sales as a “warm” market, while the random writer group is a “cold” market. The warm group was more inclined to respond to my follow because they had been “primed” to respond accordingly (the OWC participants were encouraged to build relationships with other writers).
Similarly, depending on who you are and what you are writing about, your choice of publication to source writers will also influence your results. For example, if you write about cats and follow writers in reptile-focused publications, they may be less inclined to follow you in return. Finding writers more compatible with your topic will improve your response rate.
How come the response rate is so low (10%)?
If you understand human nature and sales, that rate should not surprise you. People are lazy and won’t put in the effort to follow you. There could be other reasons, such as, not feeling deserving, being so new that they don’t understand how following works, or being established writers who don’t pay attention to follows. In general, you should temper your expectations when dealing with people.
There is a psychological aspect to a return follow also. If you have less than 100 followers, you are more likely to get a “sympathy” follow. Others will know that their follow will count and make a difference to you, so they will feel good about helping you. This sympathy may decrease when you surpass 100 followers.
These are my results. Your results will be different because your variables will be different. This was a relatively small sample size over a small period and should only be a starting point for analysis.
WHAT CAN YOU LEARN TO HELP YOURSELF?
It’s a Sales Funnel
It’s a numbers game; the more you put in, the more you will get out.
If you approach the task without expecting a return follow, you will be pleased with your results and may be surprised!
You can invest a small amount of effort to accelerate the achievement of the 100-follower milestone.
Find a Warm Market
A warm market (that is more amenable to following you) will perform better than a cold market.
Choose the publication carefully. The publication’s writers will be more inclined to follow you if your articles or topics are similar to theirs.
Use existing relationships, either on Medium or in your social media network, to promote yourself.
Get Your House in Order
You should, at minimum, have your Profile and About page set up. Ideally, you will have published at least one article (even if you haven’t submitted it to a publication).
You only have one chance to impress. Ensure your Profile and About page are complete so visitors understand who you are and what you write about. These two pages are your sales agents — make sure they work for you.
Don’t Sweat 100 Followers
Acquiring 100 Followers is a milestone, not a goal. It shouldn’t distract you from your real goal: writing.
If you publish, you will get follows.
Adopting my approach will accelerate the completion of the 100-follower milestone if that is important to you. However, don’t let it become a distraction.
Your Plan
If you adopt this strategy, expect a cold market and use the 10% response rate for planning. Thus you could expect 15 return follows for every 150 (compatible) writers you follow. That would get you 100 followers in a week.
SUMMARY
I acquired 100 followers in less than a month and was accepted into the MPP by following this plan.
Some rudimentary daily tracking will expose whether the plan is working. Use the results as feedback to adjust your decisions and plan.
You can control your results and reach your follower goals by adopting a sales and marketing strategy.
Be Cynical,
GB
PS
If you have questions or feedback, use the comments or contact me offline at: public at garybozek dot com.
If you are inclined to capture stats and write a similar article, bookmark this link to come back and add your article link in the comments.
I haven’t included the stats I captured on the follower sizes of writers. It has some interesting human insights but is not germane to this article. If you are interested in those stats, let me know in the comments; I may write a supplementary analysis article.
I wish you well in your quest for the elusive 100 followers milestone.
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