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How to invite subscribers to join your chat

Dec 2, 2022
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How to invite subscribers to join your chat
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Chat is a new way for Substack writers to start conversations with their subscribers. Writers and creators are hosting conversations to get to know their community, react to live events, brainstorm posts, and more.

As you spark conversation in Chat, it’s important to remind your readers to download the app to participate. Here are a few ideas for how to promote your chat to existing subscribers and curious followers who haven’t yet joined you on Substack. 

If you haven’t sent your first chat yet, visit our getting-started guide.

Share a link to your latest chat

You can get a link to any chat thread by long-pressing the chat bubble or tapping the 3-dot menu.

Writers use this unique URL to promote the chat on social media or embed it within their Substack posts. Embed a chat in a post simply by pasting the link directly into the post. 

  • Novelist and essayist

    Elle Griffin
    embedded her chat link in a post, where she continued to expand on the topic discussed.

  • Political writer

    Adam Bienkov
    included a screenshot of his first chat in a tweet with his chat URL, inviting more people to join the conversation.

  • Culture writer

    Hunter Harris
    lets her Twitter followers know a live conversation is taking place by sharing the unique URL. 

Twitter avatar for @hunteryharris
hunter harris @hunteryharris
btw started a white lotus chat on the substack app this a.m. — will be ongoing through the season 🪷 hunterharris.substack.com/chat
hunterharris.substack.comJoin Hunter Harris’ subscriber chatSubscribe to Hung Up and join the conversation.
4:33 PM ∙ Nov 15, 2022
35Likes1Retweet

Send a dedicated announcement post to subscribers

Substack will send a one-time email notification to your readers when you start your first chat. 

It’s best for them to also hear directly from you, in your voice, about the conversations you plan to host in this space. We’ve added a Chat announcement template that you can access and edit in the Chat section of your Settings page. 

Post template

We encourage writers to personalize this post. Here are a few of our favorites so far: 

  • Food writers Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway from

    The Broiler Room
    describe Chat as “a group chat or message board if you’re old enough to remember those golden days of the internet.”

  • Faith writer

    Tsh Oxenreider
    explains that her Chat will be a space to share short updates, workshop ideas, and host more intimate conversations with paying subscribers.

  • Sports writer

    Tyler Dunne
    introduced his Chat as the place to “rant, rave, fire off any and all thoughts” about Sunday football games each week.

  • In his announcement post, music writer

    Sam Valenti IV
    credits the reader who suggested that subscribers would like a thread to jam on music recommendations as inspiration for his Chat.

  • Culture writer

    Helena Fitzgerald
    notes she is “excited to have even more opportunities to hang out in the wonderful conversation pit we’ve built here” and expand on the community forming in her comments section.

  • Climate change writer

    Emily Atkin
    introduces a weekly shared activity in a chat: a Thursday discussion with people who give a damn about the climate crisis. 

Read more: How to find and engage your readers

Remind subscribers about Chat in your posts

Your subscribers may not have downloaded the Substack app. Now that Chat is available on both iOS and Android, nudging subscribers to join will ensure that they don’t miss out. 

Including customized “Get the app” or “Join my subscriber chat” buttons, which you can find in the Buttons dropdown in the Substack editor, in posts will increase the chance of your readers joining you in Chat. 

Tara
of
Slowdown Farmstead
started including the “Join chat” button at the bottom of every post. 

Read more: How to use Buttons

Just as no two communities are the same, there are endless creative ways to use Chat. Here are some exciting conversation-starter ideas from your fellow writers.

  • Claire Fallon
    and
    Emma Gray
    are rounding up wacky, delicious holiday romantic comedies with
    Rich Text
    subscribers.

  • “Salad CEO”

    emily nunn
    invites
    The Department of Salad: Official Bulletin
    subscribers to share their favorite kitchen gadgets.

  • Political scientist

    Yascha Mounk
    is inviting the subscribers of
    Persuasion
    to ask him anything for the course of an hour.

  • Astronomer, science communicator, and writer

    Phil Plait
    invites paid subscribers of
    Bad Astronomy Newsletter
    to introduce themselves in his first chat.

Read more: How to spark conversation in Substack Chat

How have you spread the word about your Substack Chat? 

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