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These days, culture happens in real time. Casual fans and the most devoted stans alike log on for album drops, playoff wins, chaotic award shows, and episode recaps. But on Substack, these moments also have the potential to go deeper. Using community features, Substack publishers can turn these flashpoints into further conversations and meaningful connection with their audiences.
Here’s our advice on how to engage with these collective moments as they happen.
Open your Chat
Chat is where you and your audience can gather in the moment, like a group text for cultural obsessives. Opening your Chat gives your audience a place to react together, swap theories, and feel part of your community.
One of the most effective uses of Chat is hosting real-time conversations around live events. When comedian caleb hearon dropped his special, he turned his Chat into a watch party. For the length of the special, subscribers riffed, reacted, and shared photos of their snack setups.
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Drop Your Buffs runs one of the internet’s most engaged Chats, a subscribers-only destination where every new episode of Survivor offers a live forum of theories, hot takes, and reactions.
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Plan ahead for big moments. If you’re hosting a live conversation or watch party in Chat, let your audience know in advance—post on Notes, email your subscribers, or tease on socials so they know when and where to show up. If you don’t already paywall your whole chat, we recommend limiting these high-demand threads to paying subscribers to increase a sense of community and potential for conversion.
Post on Notes
If Chat is your group chat, Notes is the town square. On the Notes feed, your observations and theories have the potential to travel far beyond your existing audience.
See how creators Hunter Harris , Derek C. Blasberg, grace, Kirbie Johnson, and Viv Chen use Notes to capture culture in motion.
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