How Jack Appleby Grew to 43,000 Subscribers in One Year

The digital world revolves around one thing: social media.

Whether it’s personal or business, everyone’s on it. All. Day. Long.

Understanding how to master social media is one of the most sought-after skills in today’s age.

With a passion for teaching brands and marketers how to optimize their social media game, Jack Appleby decided to take the plunge and start his own newsletter in the niche.

In less than one year, he built and grew his newsletter to over 43,000 subscribers!

We recently sat down with Jack Appleby, founder of the Future Social newsletter, to discuss how he fast-tracked his audience growth and built a full-time income from his newsletter in less than one year.

Jack was eager to share how he was able to leverage his expertise in social media, strategic partnerships, and his passion for educating and elevating others in the space to find success early on.

In this Creator Spotlight, Jack shared a gold mine of advice for creators looking to break into social media, newsletters, or any other medium to run a successful business.

If you’re thinking of launching your own newsletter, looking for new growth tactics, or you’re curious about what it looks like to live as a creator in today’s digital world, then keep reading.

Want to watch the complete interview with Jack Appleby? Check out the video below.

The Future Social Origin Story

Jack Appleby’s passion for newsletters started with his passion for social media. Before he ever started offering his own advice to marketers, he was working hands-on in the social game for years.

He shared, “I worked in advertising agencies for about ten years, specifically in social media. I’ve worked on social AORs—agency of record accounts—for brands like Beats by Dre, Microsoft, Verizon, the TV show “Community,” and a whole bunch of video games.

When Jack first began talking about social media, it was not for the purpose of build a business. He just wanted to connect with others in the space. But, one thing led to another, and soon enough he started getting job offers and opportunities.

He shared, “Somewhere along that journey, I wanted to meet more people who did what I did for a living. So I started tweeting about advertising and then started posting on LinkedIn about it, strictly just to make some connections, and maybe meet my next boss. Somewhere along the way, I grew an audience for myself, which turned into Morning Brew recruiting me to start my own newsletter for them called Future Social.”

In 2022, Jack partnered with Morning Brew to launch a social media newsletter built on his decade of experience in the space with the goal of teaching marketers expert-level social media strategy.

He continued, “I went over there and became a full-time content creator and we grew this product together. And then, as of three months ago, I now own it in full. So I'm an independent operator, independent creator, and we're off to the races just teaching social media every week to 43,000 marketers.”

Choosing Newsletter Formats: News vs. Actionable Advice

When launching a newsletter, there are typically two routes to go. One: offer a daily or weekly newsletter roundup of recent events and breaking news. Essentially, a modern-day newspaper in a particular space.

The second: offer practical, actionable advice including deep dives into specific tactics in a space to teach people new skills.

For Jack, he wanted to help people grow their social media skills, so he chose to dive head first into the second option.

Jack shared, “When I started the newsletter, a couple of things were really clear. People want to learn how to make a professional social media, whether you’re a young social pro who wants to know how an experienced person's done it or you're a traditional marketer that wants to know more about a very important discipline within marketing. Now people want to know how, and there's a lot of newsletters in the space that are amazing social media news newsletters.”

Jack wanted to make sure his newsletter wasn’t just full of fluff. His goal was to offer advice people could take action on immediately.

He continued, “With what I do, I wanted to use my social strategy background to teach people how to actually do this kind of stuff. So the most important part of Future Social is I always want someone to have an actionable takeaway. You should learn how to do something by reading it, and that can vary.”

“[For example], Elon Musk drops a new feature on Twitter, and I'll write the ‘How to Use 4,000 Character Tweets’ article with very nuanced, ‘Here's where you might want to plug in an emoji so you click on the show more button,’ to average reader length, to something that's maybe a larger brand initiative. For instance, when a global crisis happens, how do you know when to shut off your social media? Can you use social media sentiments to judge that type of behavior? So I always want to teach someone an actual how-to within my newsletter.”

Building a 3-in-1 Audience: Newsletter, Twitter, LinkedIn

Before Jack dove into the newsletter space, he had years of experience—not just as a social media practitioner working directly with brands—but as an individual creator.

By offering short-form advice in the social space, Jack has been able to build up hundreds of thousands of followers accross his social profiles. So, launching a newsletter was a natural extension of his business as a creator. But, instead of offering short snippets, he’s able to do deep dives on different social tactics.

He shared, “I view my social media accounts and my newsletter within one ecosystem, whether you wanna call it the Future Social Ecosystem or the Jack Appleby ecosystem, that's up to you. I have a LinkedIn following of 50,000. I have a Twitter following of 55,000. I've got a newsletter of 43,000 that functionally cover the same space. For me, the newsletter is (for lack of a better phrase) the premium product, the most long-form version of that where it's a full 800 words, teaching you something.”

Jack shared how his Twitter, LinkedIn, and newsletter aren’t three separate entities. Rather, they’re different mediums he uses interchangeably to build one another up…

Learn more about Jack’s growth tactics.