My X posts mentioning my chapters receive about the same number of views as my other posts. There are lots of creators with big Substacks who post through X.**
I get about 6x the views and engagement on X than I do on Instagram or Threads, and so far X has not throttled any Substack related posts. In fact... I have a few subscribers who came from X.
Authors on X (Threads, Instagram, Tik Tok...) frequently gripe the algorithm is against them, or toss conspiracy theories like Musk hates them. Simply not true, in my experience.
The algorithm shows people posts similar to what they've been scrolling over (Yes X, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads know how long you linger on a post). Posts with text only (eg poetry) get 1/10 the views as memes, because memes are a visual image, and so people stop and laugh at memes. Microseconds to hook people matter.
Generally, emojis, images, gifs, and short reels get far more views/engagement than text. Notes is primitive, doesnt offer emojis, and to add an image or gif is a headache.
On the bright side, recently I observed an author get fanstic engagement and views on X with a cover reveal. Horror.. go gory. Again: big visuals.
**Nate Silver comes to mind, who Musk himself sometimes retweets, has a huge substack paid following.
Twitter and facebook think they own social media and nobody else can be as good as they are.
But at the same time, they've banned thousands of users and are extremely left wing.
They claim to believe in free speech, but have yet to prove it to me.
Notes is a good competitor, and I have yet to see anyone banned.
Right now, Substack lets people abuse the fiction and literature section by posting everything but fiction and literature and climbing to the top of those sections.
I am skeptical of the X conspiracy theory.
My X posts mentioning my chapters receive about the same number of views as my other posts. There are lots of creators with big Substacks who post through X.**
I get about 6x the views and engagement on X than I do on Instagram or Threads, and so far X has not throttled any Substack related posts. In fact... I have a few subscribers who came from X.
Authors on X (Threads, Instagram, Tik Tok...) frequently gripe the algorithm is against them, or toss conspiracy theories like Musk hates them. Simply not true, in my experience.
The algorithm shows people posts similar to what they've been scrolling over (Yes X, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads know how long you linger on a post). Posts with text only (eg poetry) get 1/10 the views as memes, because memes are a visual image, and so people stop and laugh at memes. Microseconds to hook people matter.
Generally, emojis, images, gifs, and short reels get far more views/engagement than text. Notes is primitive, doesnt offer emojis, and to add an image or gif is a headache.
On the bright side, recently I observed an author get fanstic engagement and views on X with a cover reveal. Horror.. go gory. Again: big visuals.
**Nate Silver comes to mind, who Musk himself sometimes retweets, has a huge substack paid following.
I hope you're right.
Twitter and facebook think they own social media and nobody else can be as good as they are.
But at the same time, they've banned thousands of users and are extremely left wing.
They claim to believe in free speech, but have yet to prove it to me.
Notes is a good competitor, and I have yet to see anyone banned.
Right now, Substack lets people abuse the fiction and literature section by posting everything but fiction and literature and climbing to the top of those sections.
I'm pretty left wing, and Twitter's left wing days are long behind it. Those who remain are entrenched in enemy territory. 😆
Well... pretty left wing is an overstatement. I'm progressive.