SUBSTACK ENGAGEMENT IS SOCIAL MEDIA THEATER

Substack began as a place to send newsletters to email subscribers.

Substack has since become its own bustling social media space, complete with the communal unease and tension of trying to “win” on the platform. This gets people complaining about a lack of likes or comments on their posts.

We have to remember, though, that not everybody reads newsletters in the Substack app, or on the Substack website, which is the only place to “like” a post or leave a comment.

To do either, readers must visit the Substack website or open the Substack app, a platform optimized to increase paid memberships, whether yours or someone else’s publication.

Substack needs eyeballs, and every writer sending a newsletter is how they get ’em.