How to communicate on Substack
A little primer for those of us (like me) who are new here
I know that I have some subscribers who I have personally dragged kicking and screaming onto Substack, so for their benefit, and for that of anyone else who (like me) sometimes finds the site confusing, I thought I would explain the basics.
Some key terms
Something that’s helpful to keep in mind whenever you’re dealing with Substack is the distinction between these things:
Posts: These are the main products that writers produce on Substack. You can think about them as being like articles in a magazine. They live within their Substack publication. They are what is sent out via email to subscribers.
Notes: These are shorter texts that are posted for everyone to see, much like Twitter or Instagram. They live outside any publication and don’t necessarily have to be related to a specific post.
Restacks: These are actually Notes in which a person shares a Post they like with everybody on Substack (think retweeting). I think it’s a good practice to add a short comment (“Restack with a note”) saying what you enjoyed about the post.
Ways to communicate
There are several ways in which you can interact with me, the author; other subscribers of this Substack; and the Substack community at large.
You can like a post by clicking the heart icon. This is very helpful and gives me a boost of vitamins.
You can comment on a post by clicking on the speech bubble icon. This brings you into conversation with me and the other readers.
You can join the conversation among this Substack’s community by going to its Chat and contributing (from your home page, look for the double-speech-bubble icon at left).
You can send me a direct message either through Chat (look for the word Direct), or by clicking on my face (not literally) to go to my profile page, and then clicking the big Message button.
You can “restack” a post by clicking the two-circular-arrows button (no, it won’t refresh your browser), adding a brief comment about what you liked about it, and send it off to everybody on Substack (which might bring me some new subscribers, and you some followers).
You can click the Share button if you want to share the post outside of Substack, but that will then reach a different group of people (see below).
Those are the basics. If you have questions, please feel free to ask in the comments below, or in the Chat for this publication.
One thing I'm confused about is followers. If I follow an author vs subscribe to their substack, what's the difference in terms of what I see from them? I understand what the difference is for the author if I subscribe, but following is a much less transparent term.
This was very helpful! Thanks!