Substack Notes Explained: Features, Strategies, and Best Practices
Your cheat sheet to mastering Substack Notes.
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By popular request, I’m going deep on Substack Notes today!
Substack Notes might look like just another social feed, but it’s actually one of the most powerful tools on the platform for getting discovered, building trust, and growing your audience…if you know how to use it right.
Think of Notes as Substack's homegrown alternative to Twitter: short posts, reposts, likes, replies, and a feed full of other writers and readers. But unlike Twitter, it’s tightly integrated into the Substack ecosystem. Every interaction—a like, a repost, a reply—can nudge someone closer to reading your work for the first time, following you, or subscribing to your newsletter.
This guide breaks down exactly how Notes works, why it behaves differently from other social platforms, and what strategies actually drive growth. If you’re publishing on Substack and not using Notes yet, you definitely need to read this!
Table of Contents
What Is Substack Notes (and Why Should You Care)?
Notes is Substack’s short-form posting tool that lives alongside your newsletter. You can share quick thoughts, links, quotes, and images, or highlight parts of your own (or others') posts. It feels like a familiar timeline—a vertical feed of content, with likes, reposts, and replies—but it's all happening within Substack.
Unlike your regular posts, Notes aren’t sent by email unless you choose to highlight them. Instead, they appear in a user’s Notes feed on desktop and in the mobile app. This makes them an always-on discovery engine, exposing your voice to new audiences without cluttering inboxes.
How Substack Notes Works
Here’s a breakdown of what you can actually do with Notes:
Posting Options
There are several ways to post Notes on Substack.
Share original Notes: Quick thoughts, images, quotes, or questions.
Repost others’ Notes: Like retweeting, but Substack calls it retacking instead.
Repost others’ Notes with added context: Add your own voice to someone else’s Note.
Quote Notes: Share a quote from your own articles or someone else’s articles as Note.
Share from your own posts: Promote an article or tease a draft in progress.
Engagement Options
You can engage with Notes in several ways:
You can like, reply, and repost.
Replying to a Note creates a visible conversation that others can read and respond to.
Your replies and likes often surface on others' feeds, extending your visibility.
Discovery Layer
Substack Notes can be discovered in several different ways:
Notes may be shown to your subscribers and followers.
Notes may be shown to the subscribers and followers of people who engage with your Notes.
Notes may also be algorithmically shown to anyone else who may like it (even if they don’t follow you or subscribe).
Followers Vs Subscribers
It’s helpful to understand the difference between subscribers and followers.
Subscribers get your emails and may see your Notes in their feed.
Followers may also see your Notes in their feed, but they do not get your emails.
Think of followers as people higher up in your marketing funnel than subscribers. They may not be ready to subscribe yet, but you can still reach them through Notes. Eventually, some of your followers will decide they like your content enough to move to the next funnel stage and subscribe.
Pro Tip: Remember, Substack's algorithm boosts engagement-driven Notes, so thoughtful content often travels further than self-promo.
Substack Notes Stats
Substack Notes also includes basic analytics to help you understand your Notes' performance.
To see your stats for any Note, click on the Note and then click “View stats.”
On desktop, stats are limited to basic engagement, including likes, comments, restacks, clicks, new followers, and new subscribers (free or paid).
The Substack App provides more detailed engagement stats, impressions, and audience breakdown data.
Substack will also notify you if someone else’s Note drove a new paid subscriber for you.
These Notes stats are not extensive, but they give you just enough to learn and iterate. You can use this data to identify which types of Notes generate the most engagement or convert best.
Who Uses Notes and Why It Matters (This Is Important!)
Right now, the majority of people actively using Notes are other writers. If you’ve been using Notes already, you’ve probably noticed that almost all the Notes in your feed, and the comments on them, are from Substack users who have their own publications.
I did a quick study, using my own feed to quantify the percentage of Notes users who are also authors. On three separate occasions, I looked at the first 50 Notes in my feed to answer the questions:
What percentage of the Notes in my feed were written by authors?
What percentage of likes on the Notes in my feed were from authors?
Here’s what I found.
Although I could only see my own personalized feed, the Notes I looked at covered a range of topics (not just business). The results were remarkably consistent across the three days.
99–100% of Notes were written by Substack authors.
62–64% of Note likes were by Substack authors.
This confirms that Notes users skew heavily towards people publishing on Substack.
Note: Really Good Business Ideas Premium subscribers can access the entire dataset in the bonus section at the bottom of this post.
How Author-Dominant Audience Impacts Notes
Since the Notes feed is algorithmic, meaning it uses engagement signals to determine which Notes should be shown to more people, this has important implications for what kind of content works best.
If you're used to writing for general-interest readers, Notes may feel like you’re talking to a room full of peers. And that’s exactly right. You’re speaking to people who care about writing, content, the creator economy, and the nuances of building an audience. Content that leans into that does better.
But if a lot of your subscribers are not also Substack authors, it’s less likely they’re using Notes right now.
That doesn’t mean Notes can't help you reach new readers. It can. But it helps to approach it like you're building relationships with fellow travelers (not just broadcasting to potential fans).
What Makes Substack Notes So Powerful
The biggest advantage Notes offers over traditional social platforms? It helps you grow within the Substack ecosystem itself.
Low-Friction Subscribing
Anyone with an account can follow or subscribe with a single click. This means Notes can lead to quick growth.
But it also means subscriber intent will likely be lower. You’ll get more casual sign-ups than loyal fans, so focus on turning new subs into long-term readers with strong onboarding and welcome content.
Longer Half-Life
On most social networks, including Twitter, your content vanishes quickly. On Notes, a single post can continue reaching new Substack users days or sometimes weeks later. This gives your content more lasting value, especially if it's evergreen or emotionally resonant.
I've had some Notes get daily engagement for over a month. This is unheard of on most other social networks.
I also frequently see very old Notes in my feed with the “From the archives” label.
Pro Tip: Content longevity on Notes is likely because there’s not enough new content to satisfy users yet. Take advantage of this opportunity while you can. As the amount of content on the platform grows, we may see this effect diminish.
Passive Trust Builder
Notes lets people get to know your voice over time, creating familiarity and connection before someone opens an email. By the time someone subscribes, they already feel like they know you.
What to Post on Substack Notes
Don’t treat Notes like a billboard. The best strategy is to treat it like a group chat with smart friends. Here are some formats that work well:
Behind-the-scenes insights: Lessons from your creative process or business journey.
Quotes from your writing: Pull out a line and give context.
Slice of life: Share a travel photo or a personal moment that others can relate to.
Screenshots or works in progress: Show what you’re working on and get early feedback.
Shoutouts: Recommend another Substack or comment on someone else’s work.
Check out the article below for more Notes formats with several real-world examples for each.👇
Don’t Forget a Hook 🪝
No matter what type of content you post on Substack Notes, make sure it has a hook to stop the scroll and create curiosity. A hook is a single sentence you can use to capture attention and create curiosity. The point of a hook is not to sell or convert. It’s to draw people in.
Check out my cheat sheet for hundreds of proven hook templates, plus examples for each one! 👇
