Elements of a Medium post

A Guide for #MFC4372 Students

This is my own image, so I don’t need to put an image attribution.

This post explains the marking matrix for weekly blog posts on Medium as part of the Online Platforms module at Leeds Trinity University. Each of ten blog posts are worth 3% of the marks for the course.

NB If you choose to use Medium as your platform of choice for your project, there are many more criteria to consider detailed in the “Assessment grid for undergraduate social media channels”. This is a simplified version to be used for the weekly Directed Activities only.

Three Must-have elements:

1. The post must meet the brief. If I have asked for image attributions, then attribute those images. If I have asked for an opinion, then give and justify your opinion. Each week this brief is different.
2. The post should always be illustrated with appropriate images, and must have at least one. Every week.
3. The post should have at least three relevant links, using good anchor text. Every week.

You should also have a Title, and a Subtitle to draw in your reader:

Using these title fields is not just about looking good, they also act as meta tags telling search engines what your content is about, and what search terms you want to be found for.

Putting links into your blog posts:

A link should never appear in its “raw” form like this http://www.leedstrinity.ac.uk/courses/ug/18/PN35, and in fact Medium helps with this by ensuring that if you just type a link on a new line, it deletes the link (like Facebook does) and it pulls a summary (called an excerpt) and image into the post. Like this:

BA Honours Media and Marketing Degree - Leeds Trinity University

However sometimes you want a link to appear in the middle of a sentence or a paragraph, and this is where you need to use anchor text.

The anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink. It is what you see on the screen, and it does not necessarily have anything to do with where the link goes — although it should.

A poor example of anchor text:

To find out about Media & Marketing degrees at Leeds Trinity University click here.

A good example of anchor text:

At Leeds Trinity we have a choice of degree programmes including Media and Marketing degrees.

And on the odd occasion:

The best Media and Marketing degrees will involve you in professional practice from the first day, ensuring that for three years you are working with the industry tools and the standards expected by digital agencies.

Graphics for blogposts made easy

You don’t have to be an amazing designer to create graphics that draw the eye. I snap some shots on my mobile phone, and then add text to the image using Canva. The image above first went through my favourite image editing app of the moment Waterlogue, which produces gorgeous watercolour effects.

Any questions? Tweet me Liz Cable