… 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

@meganmariehart rubbish, especially young people.
What's missing in the Fedi are local connections when you depend on real visitors. Hashtags don't work satisfactorily for this. Our groups are only boosting bots. One reason why the museum for which I unofficially do storytelling is officially on Facebook and Instagram: it is that that's where the real visitors are.
I can only encourage people to focus on communication rather than numbers. But this requires people power within the institutions.

@metalbrawler I wanted to test the potential reach of a post without hashtags, basically just for the sake of discussion. My home theater has a Mastodon account since 2022 but never posted anything! Perhaps I can convince them to get active if I can show them a posts potential, and maybe other theaters and artists will join. Fingers crossed!
Thank you!

@meganmariehart rubbish, especially young people.
What's missing in the Fedi are local connections when you depend on real visitors. Hashtags don't work satisfactorily for this. Our groups are only boosting bots. One reason why the museum for which I unofficially do storytelling is officially on Facebook and Instagram: it is that that's where the real visitors are.
I can only encourage people to focus on communication rather than numbers. But this requires people power within the institutions.

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)

@NatureMC @meganmariehart
Plus, I would like to add, it takes time to build your audience since you don't get any "help" by inbuilt algorithms. On the other hand, you don't need to try and understand how the algorithms work
I think we will see more people joining open platforms in the long run. When you're socialised with the numbers game, it can be hard to re-learn and focus on the interaction.

(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

@andijah Indeed. The only algorithms on Mastodon are transparent by number of interactions in the Trending TL. This is how I discovered Megan's post.

What many externs can't imagine: to get away from the algorithm driven big platforms feels like training to become sober. And then happens the wonder when you feel completely liberated, you can finally talk about your own topics again. Without fear to get shadowbanned or silenced for a word like climate change or diversity.

@meganmariehart

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)

@NatureMC and, in case you're able to run your own instance, no one can take away your "playground". @meganmariehart

@andijah Indeed. But in my experience, social media teams in many organisations are completely overwhelmed at first – it's a hurdle. That's why I always recommend: get there first, then get communicating. And once you have the technical know-how and capacity, you can build something of your own. Unfortunately, most teams these days are paid very poorly to make the minimum only.

@meganmariehart

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)

(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 eh? What’s going on? What’s happened? Where am I? Do the plants need watering?

@NatureMC by the way, one of the "best" examples how a company can make use of the fediverse is "Andreas Bürsten GmbH" - they don't try to sell you stuff, but they sell stuff by just being approachable and communicating. Don't want to @ them, they're getting enough "spam" from me anyway following my little song. @meganmariehart

@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 Many theaters have websites that run via the software WordPress. All they have to do is install a plugin (and to take 10 minutes reviewing the settings) and their website is connected to the Fediverse. Even less work.