Medium App Guide: How to Impact Your Digital Footprint

Medium is an online publishing platform and app, that allows users to publish articles on any subject.

What is Medium?

• Medium is an online publishing platform and app, that allows users to publish articles on any subject
• Users can publish content to Medium and/or curate their feed and read articles based on topics of interest
• Profiles and articles on Medium.com can positively impact a student’s online reputation
• In addition to reading and publishing, users can highlight sections of articles or share articles to social media
• If a user likes an article, they hit a “clap” button. Readers can “clap” several times to express how much they liked the article
• Readers don’t need an account to access articles on Medium, but if they want to interact with the content then they need to create an account
• Users sign up using their Twitter, Facebook, Google, or email
• Medium and the Medium app also have tags which act like hashtags and help organize content
• Readers can respond to articles on the website or Medium app. The difference between commenting on a Medium article vs commenting on other social networks is that Medium comments are published to the Medium profile of the person who wrote the comment for all of their followers to see

Learn How To Set Up Medium.com

Why should parents care?

• When used wisely, Medium can have a positive impact on a student’s digital footprint
• The website and Medium app can be a great place for students to highlight their thought leadership on topics relevant to their industry, major, hobby, or passion
• Anyone can post to Medium, about almost any topic, so it’s important for parents to monitor the content their students might be reading on Medium
• Medium has a built-in audience which makes it easier to gain traction and readers than a stand-alone blog or website
• Professionals use Medium as a way to market their personal brand, students can use Medium in the same way to stand out from their competition when going through the college admissions process, applying for an internship, or interviewing for their dream job

Medium in the News

Besides content marketing, Medium helps to build thought leadership and establish authority. –Entrepreneur

Medium's loyal network is valuable. It’s also attractive to bloggers who don’t know the first thing about SEO. –Forbes

What can parents do?

• When you’re student is over 13 years old, and ready to start building a positive digital footprint, consider creating a Medium account with them
• Determine as a family what topics your student can read and write about on Medium
• Monitor your student’s Medium activity
• Check out our Parent App Guide page and encourage your student to use other apps in our Green Zone that can positively impact their digital footprint
• Encourage your student to use the Green Zone apps to share the best tips from their Medium articles. Ensure that they include a link back to their original article in all of their posts
• Offer to proofread your student’s Medium articles before they publish
• To maximize the reach of their article (and with their parents’ permission), students can create a video explaining their article and post it to their YouTube channel
• Following these steps helps boost a student’s thought leadership on the topic