BOOST OR QUOTE THIS!

Trying to find out how many people see a post without hashtags. Thank you!

(edit: Why, you ask? Long thread coming up … 1/7)

@meganmariehart I once run an experiment similar to yours. I asked people to boost a toot with a URL to a webserver I controlled, no hashtags either. It got <3k boosts. Yours will probably get similar numbers. At that point, IIRC, the Fedi (or was it just Mastodon?) was ~2M accounts, so it reached ~15% of the net. I wrote abut it here:

The mastodon effect: meta discussion

Yesterday1 I did something that I don't know how to qualify. At the beginning I was just playing a silly thing where I registered a new domain on a dynamic domain service. I set up Apache on my home s

.:: Marcos Dione/StyXman's glob ::. (www.grulic.org.ar)

1/

@meganmariehart But hashtags are the best way to reach people. You mention a theater. They should post with hashtags of their region of influence (city, province, etc), the type of œvre (opera, music, etc) and maybe a couple more. They should sniff around until they find the right ones. I wish there were tools for that, hmmm...

2/

… to demonstrate that Fediverse posts are worth the time and effort. Perhaps there is also an argument for a feature request: maybe there should be audience metrics for toots?! Though I imagine that could be difficult due to Federation. Again, I have no idea if one already gets numbers and insight by running an instance.)

Perhaps we can move beyond numbers in the long run, but for now, I fear people enjoy them even if they gain nothing from them. Kinda like a game highscore, I suppose.

7/7

Hey #fediverse ! (See?) Is there a tool that would help find popular hashtags? This should help newcomers, specially institutions like theaters, find ways to reach more people here!

@meganmariehart

… to demonstrate that Fediverse posts are worth the time and effort. Perhaps there is also an argument for a feature request: maybe there should be audience metrics for toots?! Though I imagine that could be difficult due to Federation. Again, I have no idea if one already gets numbers and insight by running an instance.)

Perhaps we can move beyond numbers in the long run, but for now, I fear people enjoy them even if they gain nothing from them. Kinda like a game highscore, I suppose.

7/7

All theaters have websites. I’m not tech-savvy (my husband takes care of that for me), but it seems to me that if you have a website and domain, setting up a Mastodon server can’t be that hard. Perhaps it’s even possible to run it as an outlet only, then they wouldn’t have to deal with moderation. I think every publicly funded entity should have a presence on the Fediverse instead of commercial social media. (Or at least in addition to.) My experimental toot is meant to create an example …
6/7

@meganmariehart Very first post on my "trending" feed, so quite popular, E guess.

@meganmariehart If you don't add hashtags, you miss the audience that follows a particular hashtag. Those people are potential new subscribers.

(Nobody actually asked why, but I imagine someone must have thought it.) Curiosity is one reason, the other is a recent offline discussion about whether we are hindering a more wide spread adoption of the Fediverse because we dislike advertisements. It’s possible that brands and “influencer”-type people aren’t getting the kick they’re used to from the Fediverse because there are no metrics showing how many people have seen a post. Perhaps it’s different with your own instance – I don’t know!
2/7

@meganmariehart

I saw it and gave it a star. Reach is hard to quantify.

BOOST OR QUOTE THIS!

Trying to find out how many people see a post without hashtags. Thank you!

(edit: Why, you ask? Long thread coming up … 1/7)

@mdione My idea was to test the potential reach of a post without hashtags, basically just for the sake of discussion. After all, it's not just about finding an existing audience, but also about building one. (There are some bots that post trending tags, I figure it should be possbile to tweak one of them to show hashtags used in connection to a specific topic?)
Thank you!

BOOST OR QUOTE THIS!

Trying to find out how many people see a post without hashtags. Thank you!

(edit: Why, you ask? Long thread coming up … 1/7)

I feel like I get more meaningful interaction (and perhaps even ticket sales!) from a Mastodon post about an upcoming show than from posts on other social media platforms. But a “feeling” dosen’t help when trying to convince people to join. Or to get active. My current theater @staatstheaterdarmstadt is on here since 2022 – zero posts! I would like them to get active or even set up their own instance. I think every theater should have its own instance! It can’t be more work than FB and IG.
5/7

@meganmariehart @staatstheaterdarmstadt Before getting them an own instance, let them fill their account! Without communication, no followers.
Mastodon prepares an entry for newcomers where they can find local instances instead of the one big. They can move at every moment.
My experience with social media (I work professionally with these): With much less followers you get much more interaction and relations to your audience in the Fediverse. But only if you are communicating actively. The ratio

… to demonstrate that Fediverse posts are worth the time and effort. Perhaps there is also an argument for a feature request: maybe there should be audience metrics for toots?! Though I imagine that could be difficult due to Federation. Again, I have no idea if one already gets numbers and insight by running an instance.)

Perhaps we can move beyond numbers in the long run, but for now, I fear people enjoy them even if they gain nothing from them. Kinda like a game highscore, I suppose.

7/7

@meganmariehart well, I think our experiments are biased; or at least should show a far upper limit of reach via boosts.

I feel like I get more meaningful interaction (and perhaps even ticket sales!) from a Mastodon post about an upcoming show than from posts on other social media platforms. But a “feeling” dosen’t help when trying to convince people to join. Or to get active. My current theater @staatstheaterdarmstadt is on here since 2022 – zero posts! I would like them to get active or even set up their own instance. I think every theater should have its own instance! It can’t be more work than FB and IG.
5/7

@meganmariehart for me was about 3:1: 3 times as much followers on Twitter but the same amount of interaction.

The problem is that the bosses of social media teams need to relearn: quality over quantity. It is inherent in algorithm-driven profit platforms that clicks and numbers count because of advertising. And there is no reason to want to artificially imitate this in a medium made for people. There are now even studies showing that more and more people are turning away from algorithmic