This week
A year ago I predicted Substack could be a good place for businesses to start building their platform.
A few weeks ago I predicted again.
In light of this, I asked myself if I should put together a guide on ‘how to win on substack’.
The problem is, I don’t know exactly. Not yet at least. So instead I’m going to focus on something more valuable
What I want to do instead is give you the principles for breaking down which platforms to use and how to build a playbook to grow on any platform.
This week I’ll talk about picking a platform, then next week I’ll talk about developing a strategy. Let’s dive in.
Picking a social platform
Some ground rules
The obvious place to start is the platform that’s best for you depends on your audience. If you don’t have a good insight into who your audience is, you’d best start with my series on audience research (part 1 here, 2 here, 3 here).
Social media should be viewed as the top of your funnel - you use it to catch people’s attention, get them interested and then move them to owned platforms like a YouTube channel, company website or a newsletter (hi!).
The social platform is for growth, the owned channel is for building a relationship.
Only try to grow on one platform at a time: it’s tempting to try to be everywhere at once but you’ll do better if you just focus.
If you aren’t getting results, but you haven’t yet published 100 posts, then keep going until you have, then reassess.
(This is a relatively well-known rule known as the ‘law of 100’, it’s hard to stick with but it works.)
Picking a platform
All of what follows is subordinate to the fact that you need to be where your audience is. It’s too much work to try and shift people from one platform to another.
The second thing to note is that staying consistent with socials is hard, so try to make it as easy as possible.
Prioritise platforms that fit with your strengths, preferences and the kind of content that you’re creating already.
For example, if you’re already writing a lot of content, it’s going to be far easier to adapt that into text posts for LinkedIn or X than it would be to start an Instagram account.
Similarly, if you’re trying to drive people to a Youtube channel, you’re better off using a visual-based platform like Instagram, TikTok or Youtube Shorts.
In part, this is about picking a game you can win at, and if you create extra friction you’re just making it that much harder.
OK, with all that in mind, here’s the framework I use when assessing any kind of marketing platform from social media platforms, to publications, to billboards (I haven’t actually ever placed a billboard ad, but one day…).
I call it STIR:
You start with scale; are enough of the people you want to reach on this platform? Look at the size of accounts that have similar audiences, relevant industry groups and media, or set up an ads account and look at estimated audience sizes. Needless to say, the bigger the better.
Next comes targeting; are you able to reach them directly? This might mean joining relevant groups, collaborating with relevant influencers, or even just paying. But you don’t want to be trying to become all-purpose famous in the hope that some small niche of the population notices.
Next is arguably the most important, intent; are people likely to want to hear from you on that platform? If your audience uses Instagram for escapism and researching potential holiday destinations, it’s not the right place to try and tell them about your new expense management software. Save that for LinkedIn. Intent is about whether your audience’s mindset while using that platform matches with what you want to show them.
Finally, what is required in order to reach your audience; this will likely be a combination of the time, effort and financial cost of reaching the people you want to reach. Clearly, you’re looking for the highest return on your time, effort and money, so this step is important when comparing one platform against the other.
Perhaps more than any other, this step requires that you use your own judgement. Look at peers and competitors to assess how often they post, how much production is required for each post, and how much engagement each one gets in the form of likes and comments. Take into account how long they have been active for and the engaged audience they have managed to amass in that time. Estimate the number of hours you would need per week to maintain a consistent presence.
Score potential platforms out of five along each of these categories, and prioritise the one that gives you the biggest, easiest to reach, most receptive audience. Here’s an example from Claude:
Next time, we’re going to look at how to develop a strategy once you’ve chosen a platform. Before that though, a quick final note on timing.
Timing matters, but not that much
Often when social media platforms are looking to grow their user base, they will make it far easier for people posting on their platform to gain reach, tweaking the algorithm to ensure that impressions are easier to come by.
This was LinkedIn a few years ago, and TikTok now (maybe Substack notes next?) Ideally this is the time you want to try to establish yourself if possible, as it’s like building an audience on easy mode - once the algorithmic tailwind goes away it can be far harder to grow as the platform starts to throttle growth and try to drive up quality.
However, whether or not your optimal social media platform is in this stage or not is completely out of your control, and it may be your best option even if the road to growth looks tough.
All this is to say, keep your eye on the platforms that you think have a good chance of being your next source of growth. Be ready to move when you see an opening, but don’t wait for one.
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