Most of us have been enjoying Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Reddit, Tumblr, Instagram, etc. for a while now and, you know what, a couple guys think it’s time we add yet another social site to our list. Twitter and Blogger founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone have created Medium.
What is Medium? Well in my opinion it’s just a glorified Pinterest/Tumblr combo to add to the rest of the other Pinterest knockoffs. Evan William’s vision is a bit different. This is a snippet of his explanation:
“Posting on Medium (not yet open to everyone) is elegant and easy, and you can do so without the burden of becoming a blogger or worrying about developing an audience. All posts are organized into “collections,” which are defined by a theme and a template. (For example, this post is in the About Medium collection with a simple article template.)
We believe that good design supports the purpose (not just the appeal) of content, so Medium is diverse in look and feel—ranging from different types of articles to images to, eventually, much more.”
Now, think about this — Are you excited to join this network or did you groan about yet another site to suck your time? The reaction around the office was for the latter and I’m not surprised. This site brings nothing new to the social media realm other than more noise.
So, here’s a lofty and unrealistic thought, lets tone down the amount of Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Pinterest sites being shoved into our face.
I know Facebook has its privacy problems, Twitter isn’t always credible and Google+ is a ghost town but how many solutions to the same problem do we need? It seems like most people I know are happy with their current level of social networking sites and feel like joining another network is a hassle.
I guess time will tell if this is the future of blogging and social networking.
I couldn’t agree more. Do we really need yet another social media channel? I’m struggling to keep up with the main ones that exist now…lol.
Travis Van Slooten
Glad I’m not the only one that feels this way haha.
Using programs like Hoote Suite and Buffer to manage multiple accounts doesn’t make this problem any easier to solve because you have to find content for all the different channels. Not to mention, the programs may not even post to a certain site.
I feel like your opinion is a little shortsighted. As a marketer, I can see some potential here. Granted, there are a lot of social networks trying to do the same thing, I personally think Pheed will flop, but there a few unique values to Medium. Let’s put aside the fact that young writers and authors will see the ability to gain a great deal of exposure from their work. Businesses will certainly see the value in keeping tabs on best practices in their industry and Medium could easily become a central hub for white papers. So not only is there entertainment value, but practical B2B potential all on one site.
It’s funny how perfectly timed your comment is. I was just talking to my co-workers about this article the other day in our team meeting and I mentioned I may have to write an update about how Medium isn’t as bad as I initially made it out to be.
So, you’re right, my commentary was short-sighted.
At the time I wrote this I was getting overwhelmed by the amount of noise social networks were creating – especially Pinterest. I ended up taking my frustration out on this site because it was yet another thing I might have to add to the growing list of networks to manage for multiple clients.
Looking back, I should have wrote about balancing new vs. established social networks in your work flow which is definitely something I’ll be writing about soon.
To be honest with you, I’ve visited Medium a few times since writing this and found some very interesting articles which I’ve shared through our brand channels. There is a lot more potential on that site than initially thought/wrote about.
Thanks for your comment.