How do you get people from Instagram to subscribe to your Substack?
By being on Instagram, unfortunately.
Don’t worry - Nail Mason lays it out nicely here:
Connect with 3 new fans each day, and you're building a broad and deep audience.
Imagine — 1,095 new friends who can open doors to opportunities and insights.
Create value and connect.
Start there, then rinse, and repeat.
Beth Spencer of
connected with her fans using a sneaky kitten character on Instagram.I posted everywhere, begging folks folks to find, capture via screenshot, and share. I rewarded each person who helped with 3 months of complimentary membership.
Getting people on Instagram to do anything is hard, so you have to get creative.
Beth went from 150 Substack subscribers in November 2022, to 3,000 almost a year later (and nearing 200 paid subscribers).
You do that by building a real connection, not by just saying, “Join my newsletter for updates.”
And remember - this took a year.
Make sure you figure out a way to connect in a sustainable and energizing way. If it’s pure pain and misery, you’ll end up quitting the quest to get your social media followers to your email list.
Three Simple Ways To Start Connecting With Your Fans
Reply to the people in your comments in a sincere, human way
DM someone who liked a recent announcement (and include a link to what you’re promoting)
Reply to a fellow artist’s post and celebrate their wins - their fans will see it and maybe check you out - and that artist will appreciate your support!
Comments, replies, engagement - whatever you want to call it; do things that don’t scale for a few minutes a day, and see what happens. Like Neil mentioned above - do this with just three people a day, or just start with one!
Do you need help figuring out what you can do to connect with your fans?
Then hit reply to this email, leave a comment, or shoot me an email: seth@closemondays.com
You don’t need to do this stuff by yourself - the Social Media Escape Club is here for you!
I started doing weekly Zoom calls with subscribers, and last week we talked about what we learned this year:
“We don't need to blindly follow social media trends”
”Make a 'ta-da list' of accomplishments.”
”MAKE the thing you wanna make, find your community, find your people, build the thing you wanna see in the world.”
Click here to leave a comment and tell everyone what you learned this year - it might just help someone!
These Zoom hangouts will start back up in the new year - paid subscribers get early access to the invite link, and then a few days later, the link goes out to everyone, so make sure you’re subscribed!
I’m Seth Werkheiser, and Social Media Escape Club exists as a place to explore the world without making social media the centerpiece of everything.
If this work resonates with you, you can become a paid subscriber (price going up in 2024) and get access to my entire archive of posts (going back to 2021).
Or, buy me a coffee via Ko-Fi, Venmo (@Seth-Werkheiser), Cash App ($ethwerkheiser), or PayPal.
Email: seth@closemondays.com
What would happen if you got 1,095 new email subscribers?