Investigation - I'm a curious bod
When I write a Substack post I share it with an image and preview text across social media as well as here (including notes) and email.
People open their email or read from the link I’ve shared. This is my understanding and may not be entirely accurate. I have no way of knowing if my subscribers read my words or just open the emails and delete them unless they say.
Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
My open rate is below average which is to be expected. I am hardly dropping pearls of wisdom that make essential reading and I am still finding my voice as they say. This is not a poor me post, that is not my style.
A number of kind humans told me my ‘Elbows Up’ post was well written and to my critical eye I considered I had done a decent job. This is a rare occurrence. I have high standards for myself and I am aware I do not always meet them. On this occasion I felt I had.
I woke up the other day with the thought that I should try an experiment to see what happened.
I posted the whole thing in full everywhere.
For X, Instagram and Facebook that was one post.
For Threads it was an 11 part thread.
For BlueSky 19.
This was a second posting so my expectations were low.
In all areas it was mainly an ‘I didn’t see this’ audience.
Apart from Threads the range of reactions, shares and comments fell within my expectations more or less given the situation.
So what happened on Threads?
I will tell you to my knowledge the post with the highest number of views I had prior to posting was around 1600 and that was a shout out along the lines of ‘I will share your post if you reply’. My highest otherwise was approx 240. I have less than 300 followers on Threads.
I don’t have a Facebook page just a profile so my numbers there are equally small. My Instagram is almost double my Threads. My BlueSky and X follower counts are huge in comparison - 2.3k and 11.1k respectively. I am slowly building a following here.
The full post has reached 14.6k!
The eternal student and social scientist in me needs to unpack this.
My thoughts on reasons people don't click Substack links.
1. You have to have a Substack account - no you don't. Substack is a platform where people can read from links without an account.
2. You have to follow/subscribe to my Substack to read the posts. I'd be delighted if you did but it's not necessary it's more important you read my posts.
3. It costs money to read Substacks. In some cases yes it does. Mine are free atm. I can't rule out charging for something at some point but I will be upfront about that as are the people who have paid newsletters etc
4. My posts are long. Yup no argument from me on that one. You can skip any bits you don't want to read. I realise that's easier when I post in full.
5. You might not like my posts. Fair enough. I welcome feedback but I am never going to be able to write to everyone's taste.
6. It's a dodgy link. I can promise you it goes to a legit site but I understand someone has to bravely click to know that. You have to kind of trust me on that one. You can search for Substack and find me that way.
I'm Lily Lawson and my publication is Life with Lily - one sentence at a time.
7. What's Substack? It's kind of social media meets website. It has a number of functions but the most well used one is people writing stuff and sharing it on the site and elsewhere.
Hope that helps someone.
Working out why readers don’t read our posts is as important, if not more so, than working out why they do. If we lose a reader they are often gone for good. If we get one they might stick around and see what else we have to say. Even if they are not reading our posts if they still get to see them they might one day.
Life with Lily - One sentence at a time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
