55 Comments

This is wonderful information. I have only been here a few weeks but have been disappearing under an avalanche of wonderful newsletters. It is great to know I can turn off the emails and still read them on the app.

Expand full comment

Yes it’s lovely - like a little ebook of your faves rather than admin to manage!

Expand full comment

Thank you Claire for sharing these tips and the Canva template! 🙏

Expand full comment

My birthday was a few days ago. As often happens, I received a bunch of Happy Bday wishes on Facebook, a platform I almost never use. I commented on each one with a copied and pasted response:

Thanks! I’m not on Facebook much these days but I do enjoy connecting. Every few weeks, I publish a short newsletter article. If you want to stay in touch more regularly (and you don’t already receive it) go to https://danehrenkrantz.substack.com . Lately, I’ve been doing a series exploring world wisdom on anger. I’ve looked at insights from philosophy, psychology, and religion. My latest article gave a brief recap of what I’ve learned so far in this series and then took a look at Jesus overturning tables in the Temple. If you sign up to receive my newsletter, and perhaps comment on the content if you feel motivated, it’s a better way for us to stay connected than Facebook. No pressure!!

Result? A number of new subscribers.

Expand full comment

Amazing Canva template Claire and perfect timing, I think I’ll use this later in the week 🤎

You’re comment on Substack being blocked on IG is interesting, I’ve shared my Substack post today how I’m moving away from IG and I’ve had the most views, likes, comments and saves to any post for weeks, plus I’ve shared the Substack link in Stories and again a huge uptake on views??

I do love your feedback on referring to your account as something other than Substack, from some of the comments there’s a lot of people that haven’t heard of it ☺️

Expand full comment

Yesterday I had way over 100 more story views than usual and people were finding my pinned posts - it was odd! 😆

Expand full comment

Claire, I'm not on IG but still, I never knew this! I had no idea that it would block Substack content!

Also, I published this one a few weeks ago about a different (unique) way of promoting your Substack out in the wild. It struck a chord with lots of readers!

https://open.substack.com/pub/unstackit/p/promote-your-substack-without-social-media?r=2qffbg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Expand full comment

Thanks love - I'll link it. x

Expand full comment

Ooooh, good question. Zero idea if IG scans our AUDIO, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. I've seen people beep out certain words, I guess for fear of tripping up the BAD WORD detectors or whatever.

Expand full comment

Bad word detectors lol - oh my it’s like a mad puzzle isn’t it - thank goodness for Substack!

Expand full comment

I wrote something for you is a stellar piece of copywriting

Expand full comment

So interesting- I hadn’t realised Insta (so presumably FB, too) blocks Substack refs so I’ve literally just gone back to a share on FB and edited out all references. And the Canva template is fab - there’s a wee typo there (‘subscriber’ instead of ‘subscribe’) - but I’ll definitely credit you. You’re a wonder!

Expand full comment

Ooops thanks I've edited that.

Expand full comment

I might suggest creating a Pinterest Pin to add to your Substack, that way if someone wants to save your issue to their Pinterest you already have the optimized Pin there. I have been sharing my stories to Pinterest regularly and gaining traffic there.

Expand full comment

Can you break down the process for me Melissa?

Expand full comment

I am trying to grow an audience over on Pinterest because it is a massive search engine that I want to be found on. I create 2-3 pins in Canva for each post (changing up the title and images) and schedule posts right on the Pinterest website. Each pin can work well on different boards on Pinterest so you really can re-purpose. If I consistently share pins, my views go up and up. I have fallen off posting in recent months and am getting back on track, but there were months I was getting 30K views as a couple of pins went semi-viral. Sometimes I will use the Pinterest Pins graphic right on my Substack article and share to Pinterest right from there using my Pinterest extension. As I am getting back on top of this, I am planning to write up a Pinterest post to share on Substack.

Expand full comment

Oh brilliant - please let me know when you do so I can share.

Expand full comment

FOR SURE!

Expand full comment

Oooo that's a great idea about using another name for it when sharing elsewhere! I have a monthly newsletter via Flodesk, and a blog on Wordpress, so use those words already. I'll have to come up with something that works for my substacks.

Expand full comment

Really helpful.

Expand full comment

Thanks Sharon. I'm glad. x

Expand full comment

I can confirm that people at Blue Sky still thinks this place is bad... So better not use the word.

Expand full comment

This might be a very big question and a can of worms - but would you say it's possible to grow on Substack without using other social media platforms? I'm wanting to move away from other social media platforms (apart from Facebook, which I believe still values community)...

Expand full comment

YES! I’ve grown solely here Jess! I brought a mailing list of 350 and the rest 8k is from being here for two years! I’ll teach you everything I know? ✨✨

Expand full comment

Oh absolutely! Spill the Substack growth tea!

Expand full comment

Thank you for the Canva template. It’s been more than six weeks since I’ve posted on IG, but if I ever do, an updated Canva post might be it. At least they’ll know where to find me should they come looking.

Expand full comment

Loooooveeeeeeee

Expand full comment

Oh thanks for the tips Claire! I’d suspected that IG might hide substack related words, but wasn’t sure. Gonna change my CTAs on there!

Expand full comment