If you need a detox from social media and only want to focus on one platform, you’re not alone. You’re in good company.
Platform fatigue is real and endlessly chasing followers becomes a pain in the butt.
The recent Harris Poll research shows that Gen Z (18-27yo) is wasting their precious lifetime on social media.
The youth is wasted by the young.
At the same time, most people wish TikTok, X, Facebook or Instagram had never been invented!
You’re feeling it. I’m feeling it, Gen Z is feeling it, and Tom Kuegler is feeling it too.
Traditional social media is like a soul-sucking and time-sucking vampire. It’s missing depth, authenticity, and purpose.
That’s why I think it’s healthy to build an email list to not rely on algorithms and curation.
Sometimes our toughest moments are the beginnings of our greatest adventures
My new friend Tom Kuegler has been playing the online writing and social media game since 2016. He became a top writer on Medium and capitalized on the hay days of the social media platform.
What I would never have expected when reading his stories back then was that Tom’s journey began with his battle with Crohn's disease and the subsequent surgery to remove five feet of his small intestine.
Tom got into travel blogging and that surgery was where it all started.
Those of you who might know Tom from Medium (more than 60,000 followers and top writer) know he usually wouldn’t share such personal and messy stories.
But Notes, Substack’s internal social media network, is different, feels like home and family, and so Tom dares to share how Cohn’s Disease motivated him to prove something and eventually led to his freelance writing career:
It’s an important message for Tom and all other writers suffering from a chronic disease such as tribe member
.Why Tom Kuegler loves Substack Notes
Tom loves Substack Notes for growth and told us in our LIVE session that he reached 13,000 subscribers with
and 17,000 for all 4 (!) Substack publications.Instead of chasing followers, Tom is now building a healthy email list. After his hay days on Medium, he never knew how many views he’d get - even with a very good story that would take him hours to write. On Substack it’s different. Your subscribers will see you in their inbox or on Substack Notes.
On Substack, he feels seen and more fulfilled than ever before. It’s meaningful and purposeful to be on Substack and for an audience of email subscribers.
Users spend hours of their day mindlessly scrolling social media
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, as a marketing manager, I came across the new Harris Poll research on Gen Z (18-27yo) social media usage.
It almost made me throw up how this generation is wasting their precious time and life.
On average, they spend 4 hours (!) a day. Some spend even 7 hours per day mindlessly scrolling through social media.
In addition, most wish TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat had never been invented.
In our LIVE session, Tom also shared that he spends hours watching or listening to YouTube videos, but he’s careful of his social media consumption.
After ditching his YouTube channel, Facebook, Medium, and LinkedIn, he’s now solely focusing on creating content for Substack and Substack Notes, the new and exciting internal social media network that many love. It’s a massive game changer and feels soooooo good, purposeful, and healthy.
Still, most writers sleep on Notes. zzzzzz
Psst! Wanna kickstart or boost your Notes journey? Today is Substack Notes Boost Fri-YAY in the Chat. Share, engage and boost your subs.
Notes is a huge growth driver for Tom, so I asked him about tricks that may be off our radar to create viral Substack notes.
Here’s how to take advantage of Subsatck Notes and write viral posts on Notes:
