Growth Hacking - From zero to over 10 thousand followers.
PROJECT DURATION
The project took place between January and August of 2015. Each week students submitted a blog to BDW's Medium RE: Write publication. The overarching goal of the project was to acquire 150 publication followers.
MY ROLE
Product Manager
Three Strategies
#1. The Social Strategy
We chose to publish the BDW RE: Write publication on the Medium.com platform. This decision was based on the evidence that Medium has deep associations with design, technology and the startup community. The content strategy behind the project was to introduce the BDW way of thinking to the world.
Through the weekly practice of publishing articles on Medium, we endeavored to promote the publication and its new material on the groups' individual social media channels.
What I Learned
The follower growth results from this tactic were stagnant. While the BDW RE: Write publication did reach the ears the of the BDW alumni community, it did not grow from there. We needed to think bigger and strategically harness the power of the Medium blogging community.
#2. Testing for Growth
To test the best means for growth, I needed something to test against. I hypothesized that the BDW.com site could be a source of measurement for growth. If I measured traffic flow from the RE: Write publication, I could measure when people engaged with BDW because of the Medium publication. In other words, was Medium driving traffic to BDW sitting could this help us gather followers?
What I Learned
There was a distinct correlation between BDW viewer spikes and popular Medium articles. We were fortunate to capitalize on the popularity of some exceptional articles hosted by the BDW publication. The activity meant the Medium community was engaged in what BDW students wrote.
#3. Capitalizing
After initially testing our popularity with the Medium community, I took the our growth to the next level. I presented Medium with these "engaged audience stats" and asked them to make RE: Write one of their on-boarding recommendation publications to follow.
What I Learned
After Medium started recommending Re: Write the publication saw tremendous growth almost overnight. But it grew in more rapidly when students published new material at the beginning of each week.
Outcomes
The BDW RE: Write publication continues to host articles from the BDW community. It has proved to be a positive source in giving BDW a voice in the Medium community. The publication has been opened up to current students, professors, and alumni.
Additionally, with the advent of growing follower base it greatly improved our thinking and writing. UX thinking is based in communication.
Whether it is in design thinking, UX strategy or creative technology. It’s a process by which we translate clear thinking.
