Why Substack is Winning
And Social Media is Dying Quickly
There is no denying it, a big wind coming down from the north, blowing away the social media competition, and I’m here for it!
The news of Elon Musk’s Twitter removing the ability to have a Substack link anywhere on the platform proves a couple things to me (and hopefully to you as well):
Substack, while still very much in its infancy having only been in existence for going on 6 years, is considered a formidable foe to the likes of Twitter (or you could argue, one very easily agitated man).
Social media platforms and how we used them is coming to and end.
I predict that if behemoths like Elon Musk’s Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg‘s Facebook and Instagram don’t wise up and put users first they will go the way of MySpace within the next 5-10 years. Mark my words.
I left EM’a Twitter on April 1st, removing it from all my devices, forced to find, what I now consider to be, better substitutions for what I used to get from the doom scroller. More on what that’s been like and how you can do it to, is coming soon. But I mention this here because if not for n article from the team at Substack I would never have known about the drama coming down from EMT (it takes a long time to type Elon Musk’s Twitter). The Substack team mentions how well it’s doing (not really news to me), the coming soon Notes feature (what many are surmising is the reason for the EMT retaliation), and this:
The Substack model is thriving. The proof is that the imitations are failing and the incumbents are resisting.
For example, today Twitter started blocking links to Substack.
If you haven’t read it already, I think you should.
And because news travels at the speed of light, especially when it involves the latest EMT antics, the following “news” outlets are also reporting on it.
The New York Times - Twitter Takes Aim at Posts That Link to Its Rival Substack
Elon Musk’s company made the norm-shattering move two days after the publishing start-up Substack unveiled a Twitter-like service.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/technology/twitter-substack-elon-musk.html
The Verge - Twitter is now marking Substack links as unsafe
Twitter’s escalation against Substack reaches a new level.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/7/23674936/twitter-marking-substack-links-unsafe
NBC News - Twitter restricts users from liking or retweeting posts that link to Substack
Substack's founders said they were “disappointed that Twitter has chosen to restrict writers’ ability to share their work.”
I can think of no better time to jump ship on Twitter (and the others) and go where the advertisers are not welcome and the timeline will (fingers crossed) only be of the best quality content that we want to see and not what the platform wants us to see. But, the more Substack becomes the replacement place for all of us who hate what Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have become, the more I worry they will eventually become the problem.
I guess we’ll just cross that bridge if/when we get to it. For now, the fish are jumping and the cotton is high, because people who had never heard about Substack are now learning of its existence and by Twitter making it this week’s “Enemy #1” it’s going to bring new readers, writers, and who knows, maybe potential paying customers to those newsletters they like.
So, if you haven’t been writing your fiction or non-fiction in a while, there’s never been a better time than RIGHT NOW to get started! Write your little hearts out everyone, because who knows how long this wave of newcomers will last. Let’s show the world and the EMT’s of the world what freedom from constraints looks like and how powerful it can truly be.
If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some fiction writing to do…
And if you’re here because of what you heard about EMT’s anti-Substack position, feel free to subscribe to my awesome newsletter and stick it to the man!
The whole affair reeks of insecurity. If you’re confident in your model, then you don’t worry about others, you just watch and… take note. 🤭