Asking honestly, how does the substack notes algorithm work? To me it feels super clunky, my notes hardly reach new people. I've been posting on notes for a while and it seems it's fallen into the trap of all social media that only if you're big or your note has hundreds of likes it gets seen in explore. If the purpose is to make writers more discoverable seems like I should be seeing more smaller writers in my niche on notes explore.
To post an introductory video on a fleeting feed that is governed by an algorithm does not make much sense, does it? It will be there on chance for a few minutes or hours to be seen unless people adopt the old, terrible habit of scrolling for hours in their feed like in the social media they had left.
The content in Notes is much better than on X or Facebook, but it starts converging (see the comment about furbabies). Plus, pleople seem to be OK with reading the notes with an occasional article, but do not subscribe to the channels they find as often.
I would love to find another way of making people aware of my writing, as Notes just does not seem to work, with the danger of bringing over the bad behavior of other social media into this wonderful space.
Can we get creative together? Can we, until then, at least have a toggle to turn off the Notes' "Explore" tab?
I haven’t really gotten the traction on notes I would have liked but I’ve had some super rich experiences there. I periodically highlight those in an email:
I don't exactly see how Notes would actually get subscribers. Notes get followers, but not always subscribers. Maybe perhaps for those who already have a lot of followers and subscribers because they have more interaction. Not that I know if that is the key to Notes and visibility. Notes doesn't work in the way I think Notes should. And I think because it's a clunky.
Notes is barebones. Your only option in terms of organization is just explore or follow. There honestly needs to be an option to organize things in chronological order on Explore. And if you don't want to that, then figure out a way to mark a Note as "read." I don't want to mute an entire writer on my feed just to remove things I'm not interested in seeing anymore. Otherwise, you are just stuck in a mess of endless scrolling. It's not organized and, there is no way to make it organized.
And honestly, this is just an overall problem with Substack, organization done in a clunky manner. Unless you know who you want to read, you are going to have issues with trying to find someone's writing to read.
Notes isn't a good solution for this unless it is improved on a technical standpoint for usability.
Another perspective: Engaging on Notes regularly has absolutely brought me more subscribers. It also helps me discover amazing writers and publications. Sometimes I subscribe to these publications. Sometimes I feature them in my monthly link-up post. Multiple times a day, I heart, comment on, and restack posts I never would’ve seen before Notes.
Once again, Notes are a disgrace in countries where the use of Substack is lower! Only restore the invitation to subscribe and remove the invitation to become a follower.
One thing I did recently was create a post out of my notes. I get a lot of ideas and share observations that often are not directly related, and I found this really effective to tie them together and to draw interest.
I plan on doing this with other writer’s notes to expand my reach as well. Kind of like what’s been done in this post!
Also, the first part about posting a video made me think of another idea - posting a video in your about page! You could also post a video in notes and then include it in the about page and in a pin post.
I also did this, and it became my most restacked and commented post. I highly recommend recycling notes, especially if there is a thematic connection. In my case, I recycled artist notes that I have been sharing!
I’m not terribly clever when it comes to Notes but I do my best. One Note got me a lot of subscribers so there still hope for that method of growth. What I want more is engagement. I try to do that with others so eventually what I put out comes back. ✌🏾
The note-restack of a post (by author) will actually SUBTRACT the likes (assigned to the note) from the total by not displaying these for the post itself.
Confirmed by chatbot today:
"1. When a post is restacked as a note, the likes on the note do not transfer to the original post. They are considered separate in terms of engagement metrics.
2. Likes on the restacked note are specific to that note and won't reflect on the original post's like count."
Confusingly, this is not a problem for high profile substacks (several examples provided to chatbot) which can use the cross-over of likes to their advantage - with "likes" for the post and restack of it displayed as the total (and visible in the original post and the restack note).
(As a solution, chatbot suggested asking readers to like the post instead of the note!!!
"If you need likes to reflect on the original post, encourage your readers to like the post directly.")
I post notes everyday. I'm still a nobody on Substack though.
Asking honestly, how does the substack notes algorithm work? To me it feels super clunky, my notes hardly reach new people. I've been posting on notes for a while and it seems it's fallen into the trap of all social media that only if you're big or your note has hundreds of likes it gets seen in explore. If the purpose is to make writers more discoverable seems like I should be seeing more smaller writers in my niche on notes explore.
To post an introductory video on a fleeting feed that is governed by an algorithm does not make much sense, does it? It will be there on chance for a few minutes or hours to be seen unless people adopt the old, terrible habit of scrolling for hours in their feed like in the social media they had left.
The content in Notes is much better than on X or Facebook, but it starts converging (see the comment about furbabies). Plus, pleople seem to be OK with reading the notes with an occasional article, but do not subscribe to the channels they find as often.
I would love to find another way of making people aware of my writing, as Notes just does not seem to work, with the danger of bringing over the bad behavior of other social media into this wonderful space.
Can we get creative together? Can we, until then, at least have a toggle to turn off the Notes' "Explore" tab?
I haven’t really gotten the traction on notes I would have liked but I’ve had some super rich experiences there. I periodically highlight those in an email:
https://createmefree.substack.com/p/meanwhile-over-in-notes-3ea
Don't forget to post pics of your furbabies! I share a #dailydinkles every day (more or less).
Yes to all the fur babies! 😍
I don't exactly see how Notes would actually get subscribers. Notes get followers, but not always subscribers. Maybe perhaps for those who already have a lot of followers and subscribers because they have more interaction. Not that I know if that is the key to Notes and visibility. Notes doesn't work in the way I think Notes should. And I think because it's a clunky.
Notes is barebones. Your only option in terms of organization is just explore or follow. There honestly needs to be an option to organize things in chronological order on Explore. And if you don't want to that, then figure out a way to mark a Note as "read." I don't want to mute an entire writer on my feed just to remove things I'm not interested in seeing anymore. Otherwise, you are just stuck in a mess of endless scrolling. It's not organized and, there is no way to make it organized.
And honestly, this is just an overall problem with Substack, organization done in a clunky manner. Unless you know who you want to read, you are going to have issues with trying to find someone's writing to read.
Notes isn't a good solution for this unless it is improved on a technical standpoint for usability.
Another perspective: Engaging on Notes regularly has absolutely brought me more subscribers. It also helps me discover amazing writers and publications. Sometimes I subscribe to these publications. Sometimes I feature them in my monthly link-up post. Multiple times a day, I heart, comment on, and restack posts I never would’ve seen before Notes.
Once again, Notes are a disgrace in countries where the use of Substack is lower! Only restore the invitation to subscribe and remove the invitation to become a follower.
FYI I am still looking for esoteric substacks! Have big plans for Books That Made Us that I shall announce very soon!
One thing I did recently was create a post out of my notes. I get a lot of ideas and share observations that often are not directly related, and I found this really effective to tie them together and to draw interest.
I plan on doing this with other writer’s notes to expand my reach as well. Kind of like what’s been done in this post!
Also, the first part about posting a video made me think of another idea - posting a video in your about page! You could also post a video in notes and then include it in the about page and in a pin post.
Lots of possibilities to explore !
I also did this, and it became my most restacked and commented post. I highly recommend recycling notes, especially if there is a thematic connection. In my case, I recycled artist notes that I have been sharing!
awesome!
Anyone else notice a huge drop in subscriptions since notes was released?
More like since they introduced followers.
Huge uptick when Notes and Recommendations were rolled out, and a sizeable drop off when Followers were introduced.
Not me - it’s had the opposite effect.
Y’all added new tactics to hide people like me in Notes… Smart move big tech
I wish they had Substack notes on Buffer so I could schedule out posts like to social media
I think Buffer has a suggestion box for that
BE
I’m not terribly clever when it comes to Notes but I do my best. One Note got me a lot of subscribers so there still hope for that method of growth. What I want more is engagement. I try to do that with others so eventually what I put out comes back. ✌🏾
https://brujasinnorte.blogspot.com/2024/07/plea-mar-rasurada-por-supuesto.html
Be warned: Do NOT use notes to restack a post!
The note-restack of a post (by author) will actually SUBTRACT the likes (assigned to the note) from the total by not displaying these for the post itself.
Confirmed by chatbot today:
"1. When a post is restacked as a note, the likes on the note do not transfer to the original post. They are considered separate in terms of engagement metrics.
2. Likes on the restacked note are specific to that note and won't reflect on the original post's like count."
Confusingly, this is not a problem for high profile substacks (several examples provided to chatbot) which can use the cross-over of likes to their advantage - with "likes" for the post and restack of it displayed as the total (and visible in the original post and the restack note).
(As a solution, chatbot suggested asking readers to like the post instead of the note!!!
"If you need likes to reflect on the original post, encourage your readers to like the post directly.")