Medium vs LinkedIn - the secrets you should know to get the most out of these platforms

Every writer is different: we have different styles, different goals, and different backgrounds. Similarly, each publishing platform is different. The audience, the topics, and the algorithm will affect the way your content is showcased. In order to take advantage of these differences you must be sure of what kind of content you are offering and who is your audience. In this article, we will go through the main differences between the two platforms and 3 golden rules to improve your content visibility. 

Author: Carmen Rodriguez

Key differences between LinkedIn and Medium

• Audience 

In August 2022 the number of people who visited LinkedIn was 1.7 billion whereas Medium had 137.5 million visits as you can see in figure 1. Nevertheless, the LinkedIn  audience is more business oriented and works better with B2B content, and with Medium you can have success with a wider variety of approaches. Another interesting number to consider is the bounce rate or the percentage of visits to your website where only 1 page was viewed. LinkedIn has a lower bounce rate meaning people usually check more than one article once they are on the page. Precisely they usually check around seven. ¹

Figure 1: Comparison of LinkedIn and Medium by August 2022

• Direct monetization vs paid growth

Medium has a partner program to earn money based on views and attention time. Nevertheless, 90% of content creators get less than 500$ a year. 2 There are  also some requirements in place to join the program as you can see in figure 2. On the other hand, LinkedIn offers the option to promote your content with paid campaigns. This guarantees that the post will be seen by your targeted audience. If you are creating content for a company they might be interested in using this feature to reach their clients faster, but if you are writing content as a personal brand and you don't have a big budget you might want to have the goal of earning from your content. In any case mirroring won't hurt. 

Figure 2: partner program requirements

• Editing features

Some of the elements you can include in your LinkedIn posts are: images, videos, documents, open positions, polls, and events. When you are in the “write an article” section your options are: image, video, slides, links, and snippets. The snippets are like highlighted text with a dark background as you can see in figure 3.

Figure 3: LinkedIn snippets, link, and regular text

Regarding Medium you also have the option to upload your own images and videos. The extra feature is that you can also search from the Unsplash image gallery without leaving the Medium site. This option saves a lot of time. If you have an embedded text this is also a possibility with Medium. An embed code is a short line of text that you can copy and paste from one website to another in HTML coding language.

Golden rules to improve your article’s performance

Rule number 1: Exposure, exposure, exposure

If you are reading this article it is because you want your content to reach as many people as possible. The simple answer to this is that the more platforms you use to publish your content the more chances you have to reach different readers. So once you have created a piece of content in which you have invested hours, try to get the most out of it by publishing it through different channels.

Rule number 2: Customize your profile description

Medium is a publishing platform, LinkedIn is a network of professionals to get connected. Meaning that in the first one your audience is searching mostly for content whereas in the second one they are searching for interesting profiles. If you want your content to succeed on LinkedIn you need to have a strong profile and several connections, you need to sell your personal image at the same time as your content. This can be beneficial to writers with a strong background but it also takes time.

Rule number 3: Adapt your content

“Longform political think pieces are better-placed on Medium” explained Kathryn LeBlanc ³ (Digital strategist for nonprofits and changemakers) who has seen how her engagement drops on LinkedIn when she addresses topics of this nature. When you want to address political news it is better to go for a more non-divisive approach on LinkedIn. You can benefit from hashtags on LinkedIn, improving your visibility and potential engagement because you can pop up in the news feed of people that are not your connections.

Conclusions

According to what has been discussed it could be assumed that LinkedIn should be your platform of choice if you have a business-focused reader and if you want to spend your budget on promoting your articles. But, if you want to write for people and monetize your content, then you should choose Medium. Moreover, keep in mind you can always publish on both platforms in order to get more reach.  

References

1. https://www.similarweb.com/es/website/linkedin.com/vs/medium.com/#traffic 
   
2.  How to Make Money Writing on Medium.com in 2022 | Feedium
3. What should you publish on Medium vs. on LinkedIn? | by Kathryn LeBlanc | Mission.org | Medium

About Carmen Rodriguez

Carmen Rodriguez is a junior social media manager at Luna Vision and executive assistant at basenode.io. Before that, she worked for other companies in the marketing field. Besides her degree in business administration, she holds a master's in social innovation. You can reach out to Carmen via LinkedIn.

About Luna Vision

Luna Vision is a blockchain marketing agency with its roots in the blockchain ecosystem. We offer data-focused marketing to blockchain startups. With a deep understanding of blockchain technology, we can best promote your products created and running within the blockchain ecosystem and “translate” to your customers - may they be already included in the ecosystem or still be new here.