I've taken a look at your profile and noticed you have relatively few likes on your notes. Here are a few things you might consider:
1. Analytical types like you and me can sometimes be too logical and not emotional enough. Maybe try writing more about feelings rather than just logic?
2. Add an image to your notes. You don’t have to be a great photographer—what matters is that the image conveys the mood or emotion.
3. Try connecting with a few Substackers as if you’re friends, just like you and I connected. If you have 10 such connections, you’ll probably always have 10 likes and maybe some restacks as well.
4. Ultimately, the most important thing is to be authentic. If you find that any of this clashes with your authenticity, then it’s not you, and sticking to something that doesn’t feel like you wouldn’t make sense.
If it's any consolation, I don't join Notes because I'm not really sure how that works. Is that like a DM but for Substack? Maybe you have a couple of hundred subscribers who are as technology-challenged as me?
Notes is an addition to the original Substack concept. It is like Twitter: A stream of short notes that people react on with comments. Unlike Twitter, it is possible to write longer texts, but most of what people put there is just in the shape of short memes or similar.
You can easily check it out: if you use the mobile app, Notes is what you see when opening the app. In a web browser, you can find it as "Home" (so Notes is considered your home on Substack): https://substack.com/home
But you may be into something: All the successful Notes users were apparently on Substack when Notes was introduced in the beginning of 2023, as far as I know. These people learned about it from the beginning and were taking part in its development, seeing different adjustments along the way.
New users, on the other hand, see it all at once and will have a steeper learning curve. So maybe my followers are newer than the followers of the successful Notes users?
(Just to explain: Subscribers to a publication will automatically also be followers on Notes, but it is possible for people to only follow on Notes, without subscribing to any of your publications – these are two different things, almost like if it were two different systems. Oh, and a publication is what people often call a Substack or a newsletter, i.e., the page where all your articles are posted and from where they are sent out as emails. Anything posted on Notes will not be sent out as emails, and it will not show on the publication – it is completely its own world).
Thank you for the explanation. I guess maybe you don't get notifications on the browser version. I don't have the app, so that might be a contributing factor. I never get notifications about anything happening in the Notes section. I do get your emails, which I enjoy.
P.S. I kind of love that we all collectively decided nobody was going to call Twitter X.
I don't engage with notes too much - mostly to restack. They say use notes often but I find engagement between writers has been more fruitful for me. It depends though what your goals are. Anyway, happy to chat anytime, Jorgen!
A platform like Substack offers a bunch of tools and things you can do with it, and it is easy to get distracted from the original goal – which for sure wasn't to spend time on Notes. Not for me, at least, as I didn't even know that Notes existed when I started using Substack :)
We'll all need to pick those flowers of the bunch that fit our preferred bouquet, I suppose.
That's interesting, I hadn't noticed that. Then I will have a lot of blocking and muting to do as well it seems... Treating it like a newspaper is a good way to go about it though!
It's a bit problematic with the politics – one one hand, I'm interested: I want to know what is happening in the world and how people see life, how they arrange things around them, and why.
And then, on the other hand, I don't want to read a long stream of "this or that person is an idiot". There needs to be more substance in it. Preferably also some thoughts now and then on what to do about it.
It is even worse in that I sometimes let myself drag into it and answer with a "yes, he's an idiot", and then I regret afterwards that I couldn't think of anything better to say. It makes the experience on Notes less good.
The algorithm probably works so that it gives you more of what you interact with, so this kind of reactions to stuff I actually would have preferred weren't there, will lead to giving me more of it.
20 million users will, of course, write all kinds of things. Each of us sees only a tiny fraction of a fraction of it all. I just want my fraction to be more directed towards something I consciously want, rather than something I accidentally do.
It's the old dilemma of all kinds of media: bloody headlines sell more papers, making the publishers believe that the readers want more bloody headlines, so they give them that, which again makes people believe that this is the most important there is to say about the world. And then it runs in circles, without anybody ever asking what would really be the preference. It works the same on social media.
That's true! Newspaper headlines were the pre-form of algorithms looking at it from that perspective...
As you pointed our, I don't engage with political posts to avoid being bombarded with that type of content. I am very interested in politics, but I try to pick and choose what I read randomly so as to not become stuck in a filter bubble. I want varying, fact-based opinions so I can form my own, but if I engage too much, I automatically receive content that affirms certain positions/views and quickly become stuck in one narrative. Ironically, as easy as it is to attain information these days, it's harder than ever to keep a balance and remain open/objective.
Good point! I guess there was a human algorithm, which then additionally had a bias, based on the news media's foundational opinions (most newspapers have been established to promote a certain political view).
Information exists today in huge amounts, but the search facilities become worse all the time: more focused on what people (or algorithms) want you to see, rather than what you are looking for. If it continues to develop like that, we will soon see how nobody knows anything. Algorithms are effectively killing the information society.
I can't, for the life of me, figure it out either. I don't follow most of the people who's notes I see and I rarely see the notes of the people I follow/subscribe to, which annoys me to some degree...
I use it more out of curiosity as to whether or not it will get reactions/be seen at all more than anything else. I had one semi-viral note, but it didn't really provide me with the "rush" others have described 🤷🏻♀️
Then we are two :) Notes seems so unreal, like we are just watching how others are using it and benefiting from it. We can be in there with them, but it feels more like virtual reality than actually being part of it.
There is a tendency, btw., that I have noticed – and several have mentioned in posts on Notes – that the topics are changing. I see this as Notes becoming more like X, with many political and at times hateful posts. Blocking all of that will leave very little left.
Someone posted today a short text saying something like "I am here on Substack to read it like a Sunday newspaper" – that's perhaps the most pragmatic attitude to have if you are never yourself being heard. You can just read, and even jump to what is interesting, skipping the rest. Throwing away the sections you know are without interest. Never expecting to find anything deep or needed.
I've taken a look at your profile and noticed you have relatively few likes on your notes. Here are a few things you might consider:
1. Analytical types like you and me can sometimes be too logical and not emotional enough. Maybe try writing more about feelings rather than just logic?
2. Add an image to your notes. You don’t have to be a great photographer—what matters is that the image conveys the mood or emotion.
3. Try connecting with a few Substackers as if you’re friends, just like you and I connected. If you have 10 such connections, you’ll probably always have 10 likes and maybe some restacks as well.
4. Ultimately, the most important thing is to be authentic. If you find that any of this clashes with your authenticity, then it’s not you, and sticking to something that doesn’t feel like you wouldn’t make sense.
Thank you – it all may work and should definitely be considered and tried out.
If it's any consolation, I don't join Notes because I'm not really sure how that works. Is that like a DM but for Substack? Maybe you have a couple of hundred subscribers who are as technology-challenged as me?
Notes is an addition to the original Substack concept. It is like Twitter: A stream of short notes that people react on with comments. Unlike Twitter, it is possible to write longer texts, but most of what people put there is just in the shape of short memes or similar.
You can easily check it out: if you use the mobile app, Notes is what you see when opening the app. In a web browser, you can find it as "Home" (so Notes is considered your home on Substack): https://substack.com/home
But you may be into something: All the successful Notes users were apparently on Substack when Notes was introduced in the beginning of 2023, as far as I know. These people learned about it from the beginning and were taking part in its development, seeing different adjustments along the way.
New users, on the other hand, see it all at once and will have a steeper learning curve. So maybe my followers are newer than the followers of the successful Notes users?
(Just to explain: Subscribers to a publication will automatically also be followers on Notes, but it is possible for people to only follow on Notes, without subscribing to any of your publications – these are two different things, almost like if it were two different systems. Oh, and a publication is what people often call a Substack or a newsletter, i.e., the page where all your articles are posted and from where they are sent out as emails. Anything posted on Notes will not be sent out as emails, and it will not show on the publication – it is completely its own world).
Thank you for the explanation. I guess maybe you don't get notifications on the browser version. I don't have the app, so that might be a contributing factor. I never get notifications about anything happening in the Notes section. I do get your emails, which I enjoy.
P.S. I kind of love that we all collectively decided nobody was going to call Twitter X.
I don't engage with notes too much - mostly to restack. They say use notes often but I find engagement between writers has been more fruitful for me. It depends though what your goals are. Anyway, happy to chat anytime, Jorgen!
Thank you, same here!
A platform like Substack offers a bunch of tools and things you can do with it, and it is easy to get distracted from the original goal – which for sure wasn't to spend time on Notes. Not for me, at least, as I didn't even know that Notes existed when I started using Substack :)
We'll all need to pick those flowers of the bunch that fit our preferred bouquet, I suppose.
That's interesting, I hadn't noticed that. Then I will have a lot of blocking and muting to do as well it seems... Treating it like a newspaper is a good way to go about it though!
It's a bit problematic with the politics – one one hand, I'm interested: I want to know what is happening in the world and how people see life, how they arrange things around them, and why.
And then, on the other hand, I don't want to read a long stream of "this or that person is an idiot". There needs to be more substance in it. Preferably also some thoughts now and then on what to do about it.
It is even worse in that I sometimes let myself drag into it and answer with a "yes, he's an idiot", and then I regret afterwards that I couldn't think of anything better to say. It makes the experience on Notes less good.
The algorithm probably works so that it gives you more of what you interact with, so this kind of reactions to stuff I actually would have preferred weren't there, will lead to giving me more of it.
20 million users will, of course, write all kinds of things. Each of us sees only a tiny fraction of a fraction of it all. I just want my fraction to be more directed towards something I consciously want, rather than something I accidentally do.
It's the old dilemma of all kinds of media: bloody headlines sell more papers, making the publishers believe that the readers want more bloody headlines, so they give them that, which again makes people believe that this is the most important there is to say about the world. And then it runs in circles, without anybody ever asking what would really be the preference. It works the same on social media.
That's true! Newspaper headlines were the pre-form of algorithms looking at it from that perspective...
As you pointed our, I don't engage with political posts to avoid being bombarded with that type of content. I am very interested in politics, but I try to pick and choose what I read randomly so as to not become stuck in a filter bubble. I want varying, fact-based opinions so I can form my own, but if I engage too much, I automatically receive content that affirms certain positions/views and quickly become stuck in one narrative. Ironically, as easy as it is to attain information these days, it's harder than ever to keep a balance and remain open/objective.
Good point! I guess there was a human algorithm, which then additionally had a bias, based on the news media's foundational opinions (most newspapers have been established to promote a certain political view).
Information exists today in huge amounts, but the search facilities become worse all the time: more focused on what people (or algorithms) want you to see, rather than what you are looking for. If it continues to develop like that, we will soon see how nobody knows anything. Algorithms are effectively killing the information society.
"Well, all-in-all, Notes is crap". 😂👍
I can't, for the life of me, figure it out either. I don't follow most of the people who's notes I see and I rarely see the notes of the people I follow/subscribe to, which annoys me to some degree...
I use it more out of curiosity as to whether or not it will get reactions/be seen at all more than anything else. I had one semi-viral note, but it didn't really provide me with the "rush" others have described 🤷🏻♀️
Then we are two :) Notes seems so unreal, like we are just watching how others are using it and benefiting from it. We can be in there with them, but it feels more like virtual reality than actually being part of it.
There is a tendency, btw., that I have noticed – and several have mentioned in posts on Notes – that the topics are changing. I see this as Notes becoming more like X, with many political and at times hateful posts. Blocking all of that will leave very little left.
Someone posted today a short text saying something like "I am here on Substack to read it like a Sunday newspaper" – that's perhaps the most pragmatic attitude to have if you are never yourself being heard. You can just read, and even jump to what is interesting, skipping the rest. Throwing away the sections you know are without interest. Never expecting to find anything deep or needed.