BOOST OR QUOTE THIS!
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… 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 I use hashtags when I want to boost visibility, but I find that you really need momentum from your followers to get real traction. I think the most engagement I've ever seen on here is about 25k likes+boosts+comments on a post.
I think there's also a dampening on metrics where if I boost or quote something, the engagement from me won't necessarily be added to the original post. I'm unsure of this but I've seen boosts from different people with different numbers.
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@chris Weird?! Maybe you got the original, unedited toot? The edit was:
“(edit: Why, you ask? Long thread coming up … 1/7)” and then I posted replies, starting here:
https://mastodon.social/@meganmariehart/116045519152035105@meganmariehart thanks, now I can see the thread! Much appreciated. (It might be my home server being a little slow, not sure.)
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(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 this is an anti-influencer platform for sure, it requires so much more effort to have minimal reach unless you have a built-in audience. It's very much like real-life organization I guess, where you need to find your audience and help them engage more with you specifically. People don't often stumble upon your content organically unless they have a federated timeline, which is wild and full of dicks.
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@Kirsty The thing is this: few people complain here about posting about what you do.
There are instances like .art that seek creators who post about what they do.
What people do NOT tend to react well to is the language of avdertising. This can also be about what you do (e.g. LinkedIn), or specific events and services.
What @meganmariehart gets 100% right is behaving as a human being with a job she shows passion for, where she will show what she does.
I haven't yet encountered anyone...
I suspect that the example of .art and other interest/topic based instances could be a good in between place: If a mid to large sized arts funder/coordinator were to spin up an instance so that theatres and artists can have a presence without having to run their own instances, that might help bridge the gap.
In the comments I read chatter about the different houses you’ve engaged with: what if there was an opera.de instance (orchester.de or just KlassischeMusik.de)
A large enough category with a large enough geography to create internal activity and share the burden of host and moderating but small and local enough to keep a unique character.
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(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!
2/7I have no interest in seeing brands and influencer type people here. If they start showing up en masse, I will leave.
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@meganmariehart I'm not sure what this is asking.
Am I seeing *this* post that I am replying to without hashtags? Yes.@geonz Okay, my bad, not idealy worded. I explained my intentions in a reply thread later on. (In short, I want to convince people who are still fixated on numbers to join the Fediverse.)
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@44 Yes, in a way they would kinda defeat the purpose if I wanted the natural reach of a post, but how would I measure that?
Besides, I wanted to find out how well a post with some interesting content would do, in order to persuade people (or theaters) to join the Fediverse. Asking for it to be boosted or quoted seemed like a way to simulate an interesting post. Worked.@meganmariehart favorites would have been the 'neutral' way 2 tell but i get the 'simulate' part
but then again well used hashtags will always expose a post to a more relevant audience, which gives the best engagement
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… 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 note that in the fediverse, engagement is not a measurement of impact. That is only valid on algorithmic platforms that spray content like a shower of feces over everyone, regardless of susceptibility to the content
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@Kirsty @meganmariehart ... that kind of thing.
On the other hand, I've also insta-blocked people who slid into my mentions with the same kind of language that I see in LinkedIn DMs.
We're people here. Our passions are part of us. That's what we connect with.
(I mean me, fair, but it seems to reflect a good part of fedi.)
I manage socials for a performing ensemble and I get similar responses from our pre-concert posts here as I do on FB and Insta. The metrics *look* lower, but almost as many people actually engage. And yes, speaking of interests and passions comes easier in arts perhaps: we share, we inform, we give clips to experience and that can have value in the community beyond driving sales or tickets.
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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 …
6/7I have been proclaiming the same. Mostly toward our elected members of parliament and those in the government. Leave X and setup your own instance on the Fediverse, because on X you have to login to read what they wrote which is a severe threat to democracy. You don’t need that on Mastodon.
But every organisation should run their own outlet.
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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 could be mistaken, but I see Fediverse interaction as more organic/direct. A post without hashtags is a cross between screaming into the void (low follower count) and addressing an audience (high follower count) with your content ultimately being spread by word of mouth (Boosts). Adding a hashtag would be the equivalent of posting on a bulletin board or presenting to a special interest group. Those who want to know will be able to find your post easier.
I don't think it's advertisements that are disliked but the unscrupulous use of tracking data and the bombardment of information which we neither asked for nor want. The latter is the primary use-case for "influencers" in my experience.
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@meganmariehart note that in the fediverse, engagement is not a measurement of impact. That is only valid on algorithmic platforms that spray content like a shower of feces over everyone, regardless of susceptibility to the content
“algorithmic platforms that spray content like a shower of feces over everyone”
I’ll keep that phrase handy to pull out in context, it would be a shame to leave such an astute assessment unused.
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@meganmariehart gamification is indeed a huge part of how the social media usage feedback loop works. LinkedIn and Reddit tell me not just how many people interacted with a contribution, but also how many people saw it. I often find those numbers more disheartening than encouraging (500 people saw a post, 0 commented and 10 responded with an emoji reaction?), but to each their own, it could be a useful feature for people that want to know the reach of their information.
@meuwese Funny enough, our theater has traditional paper posters up on the streets for most shows. There are no metrics available for those. (Though I assume the advertising agency makes up some numbers on request, like “50.000 people pass this poster in the train station every day“ or something.) The advantage of posters is that they advertise not only the specific show, but also the theater's presence in the city!
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@meganmariehart If you don't add hashtags, you miss the audience that follows a particular hashtag. Those people are potential new subscribers.
It’s harder to abuse hashtags here, because if you spam hashtags people care about they will just block you without a second thought… but that makes the right hashtags super valuable because you can quickly engage with your specific community.
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@meganmariehart TL; DR what?
@warzazel Boss people like numbers. Me try make numbers so boss people like Fediverse.
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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 LoL. There's a post that should have been a blog. I get bored with threaded posts and give up. Sorry
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@meganmariehart this is an anti-influencer platform for sure, it requires so much more effort to have minimal reach unless you have a built-in audience. It's very much like real-life organization I guess, where you need to find your audience and help them engage more with you specifically. People don't often stumble upon your content organically unless they have a federated timeline, which is wild and full of dicks.
@RowinSpeez Literally! Enabling “Hide media marked as sensitive“ in preferences is a must!
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@jesuisatire Fair! Thanks for the reply! (I’ve been wondering about the reach of a post outside of hashtags, and whether this could be used as an argument to encourage theaters to join the Fediverse. My current theater is on Mastodon but has never used the account!)
Just consider that a folish monkey is a folish monkey, reading what you wrote but doing as if it didn't ..
The distortion in your intent to get an idea of reach, whithout hashtag, is that you went viral. The only thing you can kinda measure now is how many instances you reached. 738 boosts and counting is like the most boosts I've seen so far. You're about to map all the instances that are and being on top of every trending stream.
That's anything but normal for a common post.
And personally I consider hashtags the most important tool to reach a specific audience, for theaters, artists, craftsman and alike.
What we do not have is a maesurement for "prints".
Probably the only way would be to say:
"Please fav if you see this post!" -
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’ve seen and I don’t follow you. Boosted by someone in my feed.
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I suspect that the example of .art and other interest/topic based instances could be a good in between place: If a mid to large sized arts funder/coordinator were to spin up an instance so that theatres and artists can have a presence without having to run their own instances, that might help bridge the gap.
In the comments I read chatter about the different houses you’ve engaged with: what if there was an opera.de instance (orchester.de or just KlassischeMusik.de)
A large enough category with a large enough geography to create internal activity and share the burden of host and moderating but small and local enough to keep a unique character.
@DavidM_yeg That might help! I contacted operabase.com soon after I joined Mastodon, but they have not reacted. I assuem nobody wants to make the first move.
