Social Distortion
Witness the birth of a social media empire, but not really.
Six weeks in, zero social media skills, and here’s what actually moved the needle
I’ve been on Substack for about six weeks. I write fiction, mostly dark and weird stuff. My follower count is small, and I have no idea what I’m doing. So, I’m not sure if any of this is going to be useful coming from me, but here goes.
About two weeks ago, I started actually playing around with social media. I opened up a TikTok, Bluesky, and Threads account, plus dusted off an Instagram I’d barely touched. My follower counts are low on all of them, and my content is pretty basic. I mostly just post the downloadable image assets Substack gives you when you publish, plus I made a few simple text-based image carousels by pulling quotes from my longer stories.
I’m not a social media guy, not a content marketer. I’m not here to tell you what to do or how to do it well. There are enough of those people around if that’s what you’re looking for. Probably half the damn internet is people trying to tell you how to become a content marketer. Me? I’m just spam-following anyone with the word author or a book emoji in their name, hoping they follow back. Which, on a side note, they really do on TikTok. I think I have 100 Italian and Spanish people I followed, so now it keeps recommending more of them. Oh well, whatever. TikTok has a dumb requirement that you need 1,000 followers to get a clickable link on your profile, so if the Europeans are going to help me leap that hurdle, so be it.
I just wanted to see if any of it moved the needle.
And apparently, it did.
The numbers
I’m not sure if this was like a first two-week honeymoon-phase blip or more of a longer-term indicator, but here’s what the last 30 days of unique visitors for me look like (see image).
Instagram and Facebook together account for about 13% of all my unique traffic. That feels pretty meaningful for two weeks of lazy effort with tiny followings. I don’t even have a Facebook account, so I’m not totally sure what’s showing up there. Is my guess that Threads gets counted under Meta’s umbrella somehow?
TikTok hasn’t converted once yet, but that’s almost certainly due to the 1,000-follower gate for earning a clickable link. Either that or Substack doesn’t show TikTok in the list. Anyway, I’m sitting around 600 followers there right now, so after I post this, I’ll probably go and follow some more Italian and Spanish booktokers and see what happens 😎.
Bluesky is the mild disappointment. It has a nice integration with Substack, and I really like how it handles direct links and photo carousels, but it isn’t converting much at all. Maybe it’s the low-effort posting, maybe it’s just where Bluesky is at right now. I’ll keep plugging away and check back in a month.
So what’s the point, you ask?
If you’re a small account thinking about cross-promotion but don’t want to spend a lot of time on it, Instagram and Threads seem like the most bang for the least effort. At least so far. And apparently following a bunch of Europeans doesn’t hurt either.
If you too are a social media noob, and this information was actually useful, let me know, and I’ll make an update post in a month or so; otherwise, I’ll just leave it at this. Thanks for reading!
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About Liminal Space Creative
As a Métis writer of short stories, flash fiction, and poems, I explore the grey areas of the human condition where love and sorrow pool together. My stories often blend genres, opening as one thing and shifting quietly into another, because the moments that change us forever rarely announce themselves. Rejecting traditional “gotcha” twists, I build layered stories that move toward inevitability on a second read. By injecting humor and kindness alongside horror and grief, I keep the lens close to the characters, asking what we owe the people who shaped us and what we will risk to protect the ones who need us.
Cover photo by Visual Tag Mx on Pexels.
Hehe. I think sometimes you just have to try different things and see if the needle moves as you say. Sometimes you get some traction and sometimes you see what works. I suppose any effort is great, though. If you enjoy the work, you're bound to gain momentum. Cool post.
Keep us updated at least every month or so. I'd be most interested to see if any of the other Social Media platforms drive meaningful audiences to Substack.