If it’s good enough for Jeff Bezos

Elon Musk has been over it for a while. Jeff Bezos exposed his Mr Pecker blackmail scandal there, inspirational figures recommend good reads, and everyone can get inside the head of boundary-pushing entrepreneurs.

Not so well-known in SA (yet), Medium.com is redefining blogs, content, communication and thought leadership.

It has 90-million monthly unique readers who spend on average, seven minutes reading each article, and it is the fastest-growing open content platform in the world.

In our content-driven world, Medium is “an appealing playground for adventurous marketers looking for new ways to associate their brand with great content,” according to one of the world’s top marketers, entrepreneurs and influencers Neil Patel.

Launched by former Twitter chair and CEO Ev Williams, Williams wanted to establish a simple, cut-through platform that shared real opinions and real ideas with like-minded people.

In the US, big brands and leading executives routinely include Medium.com in their owned and shared thought leadership platforms.

Publishers like The New York Times and Bloomberg use Medium to host and distribute content, and marketers are increasingly including the platform as part of digital strategies to drive SEO [search engine optimisation] and engagement.

So how does it work?

Its clean, user-friendly design, places the focus on relevant, quality content.

Content creators can write, draft and edit pieces to upload and readers can tag, highlight, recommend content and share on social media.

Medium has a choice of more than 90 themes to feature your content on or follow, and readers can create custom feeds based on their preferences.

And if you don’t know where to start, the Medium curators search for the best content and push pieces that are topical, well-written or offer original insights.

Best of all, as a marketer, there is a large built-in audience that helps grow your target audiences, it improves engagement quicker than if you had to start from scratch, and, it allows for Google Analytics integration.

Despite being a relative newcomer (established in 2012) Medium has forged a significant position in the burgeoning ecosphere of high-quality content.

Better still, it crosses seamlessly into the new marketing reality – the power of personalisation.

So far in SA, a handful of journos are active on Medium, but I couldn’t find any South African brands or marketers involved (spot the opportunity?)

So if you have never checked it out, do yourself a favour and have a look.

Best case you discover an inspiring thought leadership platform.

Worst case? You find yourself lost in a wormhole of some of the world’s most creative and brilliant minds.

And maybe learn more about why Jeff Bezos will never take another “below the belt” pic again.