I can't believe people are seriously thinking they can no longer use Twitter, simply because the new owner is threatening to actually allow some free speech to occur. I'm a (recovering) Democrat, but it just seems totally crazy to me. If you're not comfortable being on a platform where other people may have different ideas from your own, you won't be any more comfortable on Substack than you are on Twitter.
I’m shocked how many seemingly intelligent people are falling for the flimsy narrative that his purchase of Twitter is a fight for ‘freedom of speech.’
One of the world’s largest social media platforms has been purchased by one person who has complete control, also known as totalitarianism. Fascism. Dictatorship. The last time I checked, that’s the opposite of freedom.
Elon Musk acquiring Twitter, if anything, makes the platform more vulnerable to censorship than ever. Regardless, Twitter is now, and always has been, a PRIVATE, for-profit company. They have never kept anyone from 'free speech.'
If you walk into a grocery store and start yelling racial slurs at people, you're going to be forcibly removed. It doesn't mean you can't go elsewhere and yell racial slurs if you'd like. Why is this so hard to grasp?
People with Borderline Personality Disorder have such poor self-worth, they defy ANYONE to contradict them or point out their errors or mistakes. Nobody emotionally healthy, whole and SANE acts like this. Beware of people who say, "I'm never wrong," or "Im always right!" They have BPD traits, and they're not gonna get rid of those in standard models of "therapy."
That's because you are not hyper-partisan. They are, and its actually the best thing that the Dems could do right now, build their own. It's one of the reasons why R's will win so big, they are decentralized all over the net and have their own places they dominate (TS, Gettr, Gab, Parler, Telegram). Democrats, meanwhile, feel like they are getting kicked out of a place they have squated for a decade without paying the rent (twitter). Little wonder its so lopsided on the internet chat.
I started using Twitter in 2007. I worked as a journalist and it was central to connection and promotion for years. But in the age of Trump, I have found it a place of little value, and now that Elon has bought it, it is not a service I have any interest in supporting. I deleted my account this week. It isn’t that I fear or dislike free speech - I’ve dedicated years of my career to local journalism. I just hate having my head in an echo chamber of stupid opinions and flat out falsehoods. This post served only one purpose for me: it reminded me to go into my Substack settings and disconnect from my now nonexistent Twitter profile.
Thanks! I mostly left twitter years ago for mental health reasons, but I do still have an account and followers there, and I’d love to get those eyes on my SS newsletter! 💖
Good post! I don’t rely much on twitter to grow my audience. But when I do make a personal connection on twitter, I usually invite them to check out my newsletter. That’s probably brought me about 20 subs over two years. Not great, but if I’m spending time on Twitter I might as well see if I can convert some readers.
So Twitter moves to reinstate free speech and people react with horror; the same people who throw the label 'fascist' around with gay abandon...let that sink in.
Holy Christ, Freedom of Speech does not mean Freedom from Consequences. It's really not rocket science. If you actually believe Elon Musk cares about anyone other than himself, let alone anyone's 'freedom of speech,' you're delusional.
I’ve been quite successful gaining subscribers to my Substack from Twitter. I’ve done most of the things you suggested except for putting the address on my header. I used to have my website as the profile link (you can only have one) but I changed that to my Substack address and immediately got some more subscribers.
I receive 0 engagement from Twitter that produces meaningful results. I do not have a large following (around 300 followers), but the average clickthrough rate to a linked Substack post is about 1 per 1000 impressions. These are typically users that are already subscribed to my Substack. I understand, that as a fiction writer, the audience is quite different. It's near impossible to find new readers, and it's unlikely I'll post much there over the long term. If you're into politics or sports, and have a Substack, then Twitter can be a goldmine. Everything else, not so much.
Thanks for the info Brian. I was wondering about how much Twitter is worth it for engagement to Substack. I post about my stack there, but I don't think it's doing anything, or maybe a few clicks into Substack, not much.
I wonder why it's hard to find new readers for fiction. I've been on Substack just a short while and I get new subscribers, but it's pretty slow going. Still, for me, one of my main motives is to get my work out there on my terms. I did years of waiting for responses. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Either way a lot of waiting. I like this better.
Most of my readers have come from various other Substacks. It's come from recommendations, guest posting on Fictionistas, commenting on Thursday's community Substack posts and other Substacks. I've got 2 subscribers that came from Twitter. I also had some subscribers come from The Sample newsletter service, but when I stopped writing essays, that dropped to 0. My only other source will be if I ever get paid to publish, which might bring in a couple. I would say to continue to build up a solid archive, and subscribers will follow - it's the long game for sure 😁
Can barely wait to be reinstated on Twitter, after having been banned for a re-tweet a couple of years or more ago. I started a Facebook account shortly thereafter, and have found a marvelous community of people there, who appreciate my wisdom and guidance. I hope Elon lifts the permanent suspensions off all of us who weren't "politically correct" enough for the old Twitter Regime. Fingers crossed... and in the meantime, keep an eye out for PsychSavant@Twitter.
Years after opening and using a Twitter account, I have yet to understand the value of the platform to my business and community interests. The latest circus was the event I needed to finally close the account.
News feeds such as Ground.News do just fine to aggregate news and provide some analysis.
If I want a discussion with customers and those interested in my work, Substack is a much better model. I would like to see a better integration with my websites and Substack but that is a minor issue for now.
Rather than attempting to convert Twitter followers, I would rather see Substack helping us with organic SEO so we can gain followers that way. It actually does work a bit as I have seen my recent SEO efforts produce a few more subs to my newsletters.
These are all great tips and some I learned from engaging with content creators on the platform, though we had different audiences. The important thing I learned was to show up, like, retweet, tweet content with some value to your followers.
I try to curate who I respond to and what I consume to make the experience so I can concentrate on building relationships, promotion, or just low-test entertainment. So far, Twitter has been good. But I also frequently delete draft responses to things. 🙂
I created a new twitter account this weekend to promote my Substack posts just to find out that Twitter's newsletter feature only works with Revue due to its partnership. Hopefully, I found a way to make new subscribers flow thru Twitter -> Revue -> Zapier -> Substack.
It was fun learning this, let's see how this process works on the following weeks!
Revue was never the right platform for the work I do with customers. It was Twitter's response to Substack and Medium and not a very good effort. Yield has been a metric I have used on platforms and is why I dropped Twitter totally. Youtube and Google Adsense are better approaches but not free.
I noticed recently that Twitter has built in "Newsletter" functionality. Built in meaning they are partnering with another tool called "Revue". I wish they'd offer options for existing newsletters like Substack. Because, it looks like they pin a nice subscription box to the top of your profile page.
I can't believe people are seriously thinking they can no longer use Twitter, simply because the new owner is threatening to actually allow some free speech to occur. I'm a (recovering) Democrat, but it just seems totally crazy to me. If you're not comfortable being on a platform where other people may have different ideas from your own, you won't be any more comfortable on Substack than you are on Twitter.
Yeah, but that is not what this is.
I’m shocked how many seemingly intelligent people are falling for the flimsy narrative that his purchase of Twitter is a fight for ‘freedom of speech.’
One of the world’s largest social media platforms has been purchased by one person who has complete control, also known as totalitarianism. Fascism. Dictatorship. The last time I checked, that’s the opposite of freedom.
Elon Musk acquiring Twitter, if anything, makes the platform more vulnerable to censorship than ever. Regardless, Twitter is now, and always has been, a PRIVATE, for-profit company. They have never kept anyone from 'free speech.'
If you walk into a grocery store and start yelling racial slurs at people, you're going to be forcibly removed. It doesn't mean you can't go elsewhere and yell racial slurs if you'd like. Why is this so hard to grasp?
Technocracy family lineage
People with Borderline Personality Disorder have such poor self-worth, they defy ANYONE to contradict them or point out their errors or mistakes. Nobody emotionally healthy, whole and SANE acts like this. Beware of people who say, "I'm never wrong," or "Im always right!" They have BPD traits, and they're not gonna get rid of those in standard models of "therapy."
That's because you are not hyper-partisan. They are, and its actually the best thing that the Dems could do right now, build their own. It's one of the reasons why R's will win so big, they are decentralized all over the net and have their own places they dominate (TS, Gettr, Gab, Parler, Telegram). Democrats, meanwhile, feel like they are getting kicked out of a place they have squated for a decade without paying the rent (twitter). Little wonder its so lopsided on the internet chat.
I started using Twitter in 2007. I worked as a journalist and it was central to connection and promotion for years. But in the age of Trump, I have found it a place of little value, and now that Elon has bought it, it is not a service I have any interest in supporting. I deleted my account this week. It isn’t that I fear or dislike free speech - I’ve dedicated years of my career to local journalism. I just hate having my head in an echo chamber of stupid opinions and flat out falsehoods. This post served only one purpose for me: it reminded me to go into my Substack settings and disconnect from my now nonexistent Twitter profile.
Business is business apparently.
They need their own safe space. No doubt the DC grifters have some Blue Social Special place for them soon tba.
Thanks! I mostly left twitter years ago for mental health reasons, but I do still have an account and followers there, and I’d love to get those eyes on my SS newsletter! 💖
Meeee Toooo!
Good post! I don’t rely much on twitter to grow my audience. But when I do make a personal connection on twitter, I usually invite them to check out my newsletter. That’s probably brought me about 20 subs over two years. Not great, but if I’m spending time on Twitter I might as well see if I can convert some readers.
Hey Michael, I get nothin' from Twitter...
When i factor in how much time I spend there, the juice probably isn't worth the squeeze for me.
So Twitter moves to reinstate free speech and people react with horror; the same people who throw the label 'fascist' around with gay abandon...let that sink in.
Holy Christ, Freedom of Speech does not mean Freedom from Consequences. It's really not rocket science. If you actually believe Elon Musk cares about anyone other than himself, let alone anyone's 'freedom of speech,' you're delusional.
I’ve been quite successful gaining subscribers to my Substack from Twitter. I’ve done most of the things you suggested except for putting the address on my header. I used to have my website as the profile link (you can only have one) but I changed that to my Substack address and immediately got some more subscribers.
I receive 0 engagement from Twitter that produces meaningful results. I do not have a large following (around 300 followers), but the average clickthrough rate to a linked Substack post is about 1 per 1000 impressions. These are typically users that are already subscribed to my Substack. I understand, that as a fiction writer, the audience is quite different. It's near impossible to find new readers, and it's unlikely I'll post much there over the long term. If you're into politics or sports, and have a Substack, then Twitter can be a goldmine. Everything else, not so much.
Thanks for the info Brian. I was wondering about how much Twitter is worth it for engagement to Substack. I post about my stack there, but I don't think it's doing anything, or maybe a few clicks into Substack, not much.
I wonder why it's hard to find new readers for fiction. I've been on Substack just a short while and I get new subscribers, but it's pretty slow going. Still, for me, one of my main motives is to get my work out there on my terms. I did years of waiting for responses. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Either way a lot of waiting. I like this better.
Most of my readers have come from various other Substacks. It's come from recommendations, guest posting on Fictionistas, commenting on Thursday's community Substack posts and other Substacks. I've got 2 subscribers that came from Twitter. I also had some subscribers come from The Sample newsletter service, but when I stopped writing essays, that dropped to 0. My only other source will be if I ever get paid to publish, which might bring in a couple. I would say to continue to build up a solid archive, and subscribers will follow - it's the long game for sure 😁
Can barely wait to be reinstated on Twitter, after having been banned for a re-tweet a couple of years or more ago. I started a Facebook account shortly thereafter, and have found a marvelous community of people there, who appreciate my wisdom and guidance. I hope Elon lifts the permanent suspensions off all of us who weren't "politically correct" enough for the old Twitter Regime. Fingers crossed... and in the meantime, keep an eye out for PsychSavant@Twitter.
Years after opening and using a Twitter account, I have yet to understand the value of the platform to my business and community interests. The latest circus was the event I needed to finally close the account.
News feeds such as Ground.News do just fine to aggregate news and provide some analysis.
If I want a discussion with customers and those interested in my work, Substack is a much better model. I would like to see a better integration with my websites and Substack but that is a minor issue for now.
Rather than attempting to convert Twitter followers, I would rather see Substack helping us with organic SEO so we can gain followers that way. It actually does work a bit as I have seen my recent SEO efforts produce a few more subs to my newsletters.
My problem is I only have a presence on LinkedIn and I have a hard time converting my audience there to Substack, I assume some of this is the same.
Hate speech is not free speech. It actually IMPRISONS us all!
Substack links are shadow-banned. Its been that way for quite a while.
These are all great tips and some I learned from engaging with content creators on the platform, though we had different audiences. The important thing I learned was to show up, like, retweet, tweet content with some value to your followers.
I try to curate who I respond to and what I consume to make the experience so I can concentrate on building relationships, promotion, or just low-test entertainment. So far, Twitter has been good. But I also frequently delete draft responses to things. 🙂
Stop by! Sometimes I say amusing or insightful things. 👉🏾 https://twitter.com/theone_chiv
Very nice
I created a new twitter account this weekend to promote my Substack posts just to find out that Twitter's newsletter feature only works with Revue due to its partnership. Hopefully, I found a way to make new subscribers flow thru Twitter -> Revue -> Zapier -> Substack.
It was fun learning this, let's see how this process works on the following weeks!
Revue was never the right platform for the work I do with customers. It was Twitter's response to Substack and Medium and not a very good effort. Yield has been a metric I have used on platforms and is why I dropped Twitter totally. Youtube and Google Adsense are better approaches but not free.
I did the same. I’ve only had one subscriber from Twitter so far, though.
I noticed recently that Twitter has built in "Newsletter" functionality. Built in meaning they are partnering with another tool called "Revue". I wish they'd offer options for existing newsletters like Substack. Because, it looks like they pin a nice subscription box to the top of your profile page.
Well done.