120 - Substack 101: What You Need To Get Started and Stay Consistent

As more professionals shift their attention to Substack, it's becoming more essential than optional. Even if that's just opening an account to follow your favorite creators. 

Although I joined in July, I didn't fully embrace Substack until the end of October. In this solo episode, I share some of what I've learned over the last 30+ days to help you put the pieces together and have a smoother onboarding than I did. 

Key Takeaways

🔹Substack is a versatile platform for content sharing.

🔹Notes are quick updates that help maintain engagement.

🔹Substack Live requires at least 10 in-app subscribers.

🔹Notes can be text-only and are easy to create.

🔹Posts can serve as a library for substantial content.

🔹Mixing content types enhances audience engagement.

🔹Get your name or preferred handle on Substack before it's gone.

🔷If you're ready to stop thinking about video and start doing it, sign up for my Smarter, Faster, Fun Self-Paced Video Bootcamp. Start anytime, learn on your schedule.   

Visit ➡️ SFFVideoBootcamp.com

Join me in The Lab on Substack, my space to test, tweak, and share smart ideas worth chasing, especially around video, content strategy, and showing up online without burning out (or wasting your weekends) Click Here

📌 When you’re ready to make creating engaging social media videos a priority, I offer 1:1 coaching and done-with-you video services. 😉 Click Here

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➡️ Need more? Check out the 300+ videos on my YouTube channel Click here for my YouTube channel 

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For additional insights, connect with Annette Richmond and Black Dog Marketing Strategies on social media.
Substack: https://substack.com/@annetterichmond
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetterichmond/
YouTube: ...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Hi, I'm Annette Richmond. Welcome to Content Marketing School, where we will dive into content marketing strategies specifically for B2B professionals, consultants, and entrepreneurs. Discover how to confidently create engaging content and leverage content marketing to elevate your brand and grow your business. And if you enjoy the show, don't forget to hit that follow button. Now let's dive in to today's episode. Hi, I'm Annette Richman. Thanks for joining me today. I've just got started with Substack and I'm learning the different ways that it can support my content strategy. As I've been experimenting, I've picked up a few things that might help you if you're thinking about jumping on Substack, or if you've started but you're not quite sure how all the pieces fit together. Today I'm gonna walk you through how I'm using Substack right now, what I learned from hosting my first Substack Live, how I'm sharing podcast audio on the platform, how notes and posts actually function, and a few things that I wish I knew earlier. So let's just dive in. I added Substack to my content workflow because it gives me an easy way to share different types of content in one place without making anything more complicated than it needs to be. Right now I'm using Substack for notes, short updates, and ideas. I'm doing some posts which are deeper, more newsletter style content, and repurposing a few solo episodes for my BuzzSprout hosted podcast. I'm not moving my podcast to Substack. BuzzSprout has been my podcast home since 2020, but Substack gives me an additional place to share some episodes for people who prefer consuming their content over on that platform. Overall, it's been a simple way to stay present without creating more work. Moving on to my first Substack Live. You know, I recently hosted my first live with my friend Brandon Meller, and let's start by talking about the requirements to do live. You must have at least 10 in-app subscribers to unlock the live function. Not just subscribers, but in-app subscribers, which seems to mean people who subscribe specifically while in the Substack app on mobile. Once you hit that number, live becomes available. At least right now. My first Stack Live was done on my phone. My co-host and I were both on our phones. I was reading the chat on my desktop. And for someone used to going live from my desktop, it was really a challenge. The setup, the audio, the navigation, the first time for everything, it all felt a little awkward. I was incredibly grateful to have Brenda navigating it all with me. Substack has since opened up the ability to stream from the desktop using a third-party app, which feels like it will be a major improvement. Although it depends on how tricky setting up the connection will be. And if you're a live streamer, you understand that's the topic for a whole other day. Now I am planning to use Restream, which I've been using for a couple of years now for my next live. As for the live itself, it was great. It was fun, and the 30 minutes just flew right by. And several people actually even showed up, which is much better than LinkedIn Lives of Late. I also discovered how helpful Substack is to creators. They emailed me graphics to promote the event, provided a downloadable video and audio, and a cut and paste transcript, and a few video clips without me even asking. And they provided it all to my co-host as well. Notes have become a very useful part of my Substack routine because they're quick and easy to create, as they don't require the structure of a full newsletter or LinkedIn post. Most of the notes I see are text only, which saves time too. Since notes are the easiest way to get discovered on Substack, I've been trying to share two to three a day. Now it seems like notes are designed for short form thoughts and updates. I saw someone liken them to tweets, which sounds kind of like maybe, while there's no official word limit, notes fall between a sentence or two and a short paragraph or a few paragraphs, roughly around 150 words. But I've seen longer notes as well. I've been using the notes function to share video tips, ideas I want to share when they're fresh, thoughts that I think might help other. Today in a note, I talked about crossing things off our to-do list by just letting them go. They also don't go out via email to your subscriber, so it's a simple way to stay active on the platform without showing up in somebody's inbox all the time. As I mentioned, I'm also sharing selected podcast episodes on Substack. While Substack offers the podcast hosting, I'm keeping my podcast on BuzzSprout, but I've decided that I will be sharing a few of my solo episodes on Substack by simply uploading individual audio files. And the post, I share a bit about the episode, the episode number, and where the podcasts, my podcast can be found. And while I share them using the post or newsletter format, I don't email them to my subscribers. Just a note, if you don't want to email a post, when it's time to publish your post, just make sure to uncheck the send via email and the Substack app box under delivery, and it will just be published on Substack. I primarily use post or what people consider the newsletter format for longer pieces, similar to something I might share on a LinkedIn newsletter or my business newsletter. To keep them engaging, I always include images, graphs, or short video clips. Now, this is the content that I do send out email to my subscribers. But as I mentioned, email or not is totally up to you. I think of posts as the way, the place where I'm building a library of more substantial content. While notes are smaller, bite-sized, easier to create content. Just write a few lines of text or upload a video with a sentence or two and you're done. Few things I wish I would have known from the start. You do need 10 in-app subscribers to use the live function. Live streaming from your phone, but streaming from the desktop is gonna be a whole lot easier. Notes are great for short updates, they don't have to be perfect or polished, and text only is just fine. You can easily add video or audio on posts or notes. Like other platforms, it's a good idea to mix up your content. Longer posts as well as notes, adding audio and video also. The last thing I'll add is if you're considering Substack, be sure to get your name or your preferred handle before somebody else does. Even if you're not interested in becoming a creator, sign up for an account as you'll need that to access the content from your favorite creators. And while you may think your name is unusual, let me tell you, it's probably not. I cannot count the number of Annette Richmonds there are out there. Now, if you want more frequent content from me, do sign up, subscribe to my Substack at Annette Richmond on Substack. And as always, if you found this episode valuable, please share it with a friend. I bet they'll thank you. And I'll see you next time. To continue the conversation, connect with me on LinkedIn. Just mention you found me on my podcast. And if you find Content Marketing School valuable, please follow the show and give us a five-star review. That's the only way I'll know that I'm on the right track. Thanks for tuning into Content Marketing School with me, Annette Richmond. If today's insights have inspired and resonated with you, please share this episode with a friend. And if you haven't already, hit that follow button to keep learning and growing with us.