This week we take a look at a newsletter that is quickly growing on social media. We highlight what they are doing well and share some tips that the rest of us can learn from.
It’s no secret that social media is kind of a big deal. Many writers that I have talked to mention Facebook Groups as a large source of incoming traffic and subscribers. This is an awesome way to make connections, but Facebook Groups are really just the tip of the iceberg in how social media can help grow a newsletter.
Today we are going to explore how an up-and-coming newsletter is growing on social media and give some tips that we can all learn from and apply to our own newsletters.
Hi everyone! I’m Fawzi, a designer and cartoonist based in Toronto
I make weekly comics about our life in the future based on currents events, discoveries, and inventions. I love making comics and sharing news in an accessible and understandable format to help inform and educate others about the most interesting things going on in the world! I publish weekly on Fridays and I just hit 250 subscribers.
Year 2049 is not even 4 months old and has 250 subscribers! That’s some solid growth. Today we will examine how Year 2049 has used social media and give some tips on how Fawzi can better take advantage of social media to grow.
This is a pretty solid IG profile! Here are some things to highlight:
From a design standpoint, everything looks clean and deliberate.
I especially love the profile picture! It is simple and gives a personality to the newsletter.
Using a link to an issue rather than your newsletter is great.
When a link leads straight to your written content or a landing page, it is more engaging. A link that goes straight to a signup form can sometimes turn away traffic. If someone wants to subscribe, they will go out of their way to do so! Plus, your issues should have subscribe options built into them.
Of course! This newsletter is full of comics that make great Instagram content. I would recommend getting these comics onto Pinterest too!
Does your newsletter have any visual content that could be easily repurposed to Instagram? This is the low hanging fruit and I definetely recommend setting up a profile if you have anything like poetry, comics, photos, headline images, or any other regularly occuring image-based content.
When making a carousel, I’d recommend putting the most engaging frame first. Even if it messes up the order a bit. Once a user starts swiping through a carousel, they are choosing to engage more to get the full story. So I would recommend ordering your carousels as follows:
Most engaging image. A hook. Something that would convince someone to see the rest of the frames or comic.
A title frame. This serves as a buffer between the hook to the actual content.
In order, your comic. It’s ok to even include the frame you used in step 1 again but in its proper place!
Tips!
Your Instagram almost writes itself through your illustrations. Absolutely keep that up and continue to optimize your strategy. Your hashtags also will change for each post, but don’t underestimate the impact having the right hashtags can have.
Besides your comics, I think your newsletter has plenty of content that can make its way onto Instagram.
Because Instagram rewards consistency, I would recommend making it a goal of posting either daily or every other day. Consistency is what gets you onto “For You” pages.
A general rule I use is that bullet points and numbered lists can be turned into easily digestible content. I see you list out some examples of companies working on eVTOLs. This could def make a good carousel on IG and a Pinterest pin with the title "4 Companies Building Air Taxis".
Another one is stats. 1-2 sentences statistics presented in an image usually get lots of engagement, especially if they are interesting to your target audience. Since your target audience is interested in different industries, I would suggest the sentence "American Airlines agreed to pre-order 250 eVTOLs, with the option to order 100 more, from Vertical Aerospace. They also invested $25 million in the startup." but change the tense to past-participle to make it seem like a headline: "American Airlines has agreed to pre-order 250 eVTOLs, with the option to order 100 more, from Vertical Aerospace. They have also invested $25 million in the startup."
Here is another example of a potentially engaging stat:
Last, I suggest posts using a question-and-answer format. Immedietely from your issue, I think: "What are we going to use them for? The goal isn’t to replace cars as some headlines may allude to. Imagine the nightmare of having as many eVTOLs in the sky as cars on the ground." Posts of this format spark curiosity from the question and then fulfill that curiosity with an answer.
Another example of just a question post
Thanks for reading! Each week we take a deep dive into how writers can take advantage of social media, without it becoming a time sink. If you’d like us to review your newsletter’s growth strategies or have any topics you’d like us to cover, don’t hesitate to reach out!
Love this! Thanks for featuring Year 2049 and sharing all these useful tips 🙌