On Substack, users most want brands to teach them about products

Content formats

How users want brands to show up on Substack

How users want brands to show up on Substack
Brand activity	Share of users (%)
Sharing educational product information	32%
Interacting with other brand accounts	16%
Posting entertaining content	13%
Partnering with creators on the platform	11%

Reader Note:: Based on Sprout's consumer survey of 2,305 respondents in the US, UK and Australia who have at least one social media account and follow at least five brands, fielded October 6 to 16, 2025. This figure shows the share of users who want brands to show up on Substack in each way: sharing educational product information 32%, interacting with other brand accounts 16%, posting entertaining content 13% and partnering with creators on the platform 11%. The report does not state the base size for Substack users specifically.
Evidence:: Self-reported behaviour
Vendor interest:: Moderate — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:: Online surveys of 2,305 consumers in the US, UK and Australia with at least one social media account and following at least five brands, plus 1,200 marketing leaders in the US, UK and Australia responsible for social media.

Good for

A rough sense of size and direction, and deciding what to look at first.

Exact numbers, or saying that one thing caused another.
This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.

Instagram users respond first to brand’s short videos, then creator-style content

Share of social users most likely to interact with each brand content type on Instagram
Content type	Share of users likely to interact (%)
Short-form video (<60 seconds)	52%
User-generated content	25%
Influencer content	23%
Live video	22%
Static images / Long-form video	19%

Short videos dominate brand engagement on TikTok

Share of social users most likely to interact with brand content types on TikTok
Content type	Share of social users likely to interact (%)
Short-form video (<60 seconds)	60%
Long-form video	32%
User-generated content	30%
Influencer content	28%
GIFs / memes	15%

Interactive Instagram content did the most to build brand trust

Our Substack turns the data behind these cards into full breakdowns: what changed, why, and what to do about it.

Instagram carousels reach 142% more people than single-image posts and get 819% more saves

34%

of consumers are most likely to interact with Shoppable Pins on Pinterest

Personalized recommendations were the strongest predictor of luxury purchase intention on Instagram