Issue #53: Brand Bite of the Week

How Substack is attempting to lure in TikTok creators.

Hi friends. I’m writing this from the Devoción in DUMBO, watching all the adorable tourists order their coffees. It’s been the coldest week in New York, and I struggle to motivate to even leave my apartment, so it’s nice to be out and about on this cold but sunny Saturday.

This week, I’m writing about Substack – close to home, I know. It probably goes without saying, but I should caveat: Substack isn’t paying me to write this, and this post has nothing to do with their campaign! I’m just genuinely interested in their strategy and messaging towards content creators right now.

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Brand Bite of the Week: Substack’s Appeal to Creators 🤳

In the lead-up and wake of the short-lived TikTok ban, Substack has been working hard to get creators over to this platform. They’ve done a couple of things that have stood out to me:

• In early January, as the impending TikTok ban became increasingly real, Substack CEO Chris Best got on TikTok and started posting about Substack’s benefits for creators in the face of a TikTok ban. He also posted a series of videos showcasing TikTok creators who started Substack publications, like this:

@cbsubstackGlad to have you on #substack @📺The News Girl 📰

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• Substack launched a $20 million ‘Creator Accelerator Fund’ to support creators who make the jump to Substack. Participants will get access to ‘strategic and business support’ from Substack and early access to new Substack features.

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What Works

Substack has been pushing to become a social media platform and a creator-focused platform, more so than just an email newsletter company, for a while – and this push to convert TikTok creators to Substackers demonstrates that strategy more than ever. It makes sense why they would appeal to short-form video creators during this time – they’re at risk of losing their followings and revenue streams in the wake of political change and increasing disillusionment with social platforms like X, TikTok, Instagram, etc. They can bring their followings over to Substack and build sustainable revenue streams here. And even though the TikTok ban was short-lived, it showed us that creators might not want to completely rely on the platform and instead seek to diversify their channels and revenue streams. Lo and behold, Substack is here to help with that.

What Doesn’t Work

As a Substack creator myself, I’ve been seeing a lot of backlash towards Substack’s creator accelerator fund on the platform in the past few days. Substack writers who have been on the platform for years feel frustrated that they haven’t had the opportunity to receive the same support or access to funds. I get it – it’s annoying that TikTok creators are prioritized while longstanding Substack writers are ignored.

Of course, it makes sense for their business that Substack would capitalize on the opportunity to incentivize content creators to come to their platform. These creators already have huge followings, and while they might not be able to directly transfer their followers, they might see faster growth on Substack than us NTCs (non TikTok creators) who are building from the ground-up over here.

Then there’s the changing nature of Substack’s priorities, which I thought this article from The Verge highlights well:

But creators focusing on Substack are also subject to ebbs and flows depending on what the company is prioritizing: first, it was newsletters, then it was tweet-like micro blogs, followed by full-on websites and livestreaming.

Is Substack for long-form content, short-form content, editorial content, video content? It’s a little unclear, and I tend to believe that platforms should focus on their thing over trying to be everything.

What Can We Learn?

At the end of the day, I think that TikTok and Substack are two entirely different platforms, experiences, and content channels. Creators who have seen success on TikTok might not see the same success on Substack, and vice versa. Nonetheless, I do think that Substack is a pretty good place to be a creator. You have the potential to build a really dedicated, loyal community by reaching subscribers directly in their inboxes, rather than through a social media feed subjected to mysterious algorithms. I view Substack, just by the very nature of email comms, as a more sustainable, long-term content platform than TikTok – but I don’t think it’s for everyone.

Let me know your thoughts on the matter in the comments! See you on Thursday. xx