Dr. Jorge Caballero
? Pulled some stats on #fedified Mastodon users and it seems like the key to growing one's audience on here is to post at least once per day.
The sweet spot seems to be 3 to 10 times per day (including boosts and replies, excluding Twitter cross-posts)
Posting more than 10 times/day --> diminishing returns
Posting less frequently than once per day --> stagnant growth
To learn about fedified, visit https://www.fedified.com
Enrique Barcelli
@DataDrivenMD
Actually perhaps the opposite, people should approach social media in the same way they approach the real world.
In the real world one cannot have 2.5M acquaintances, it is proven that we can keep tap on somewhere between 100 to 200 people.
Once we cross that number becomes an asymmetric relationship, an audience of followers.
Audience is not 'social', it is 'broadcasting'.
Dr. Jorge Caballero
Final thought, and I mean this respectfully and earnestly: it's not safe for anyone to approach social media in the same way they approach a work acquaintance. Jan 6th is a direct result of too many people equating social media with the real world. Putting too much stock into online interactions is also how people get catfished and scammed. While it's fine to look for shared interests and to invest in virtual acquaintanceships, setting boundaries is key to staying safe online.
Dr. Jorge Caballero
opportunities for many as opposed to funneling money to petulant bigoted billionaires. To that end, helping content creators build their audiences is going to be a crucial next step for Mastodon.
So, next time I post about building an audience, I hope the folks who reflexively reject the notion will pause to imagine a future where self-funded Mastodon instances leave billionaires fuming atop a $44b pile of flaming bird shit.
Dr. Jorge Caballero
Anywho, all that to say: don't shoot the messenger. Mastodon's a great alternative to Twitter, and demonstrates potential for becoming a sustainable, step-function improvement over the billionaire-funded platforms we have today. In order to realize Mastodon's full potential, it will need to adapt to accommodate small and independent business ventures. It costs money to keep these servers running, someone needs to figure out how to keep the lights on. And, I'd favor an ecosystem that builds...
Dr. Jorge Caballero
Someone asked why there's no third option-- why there isn't a scenario where Mastodon goes back to the way it was a month ago. The short answer is that most early adopters are already plotting their exit, and they'll have left by the time Mastodon reaches orbit or crashes into the ocean
That's the nature of early adopters
From a purely product dev standpoint, early adopters 1) actively seek innovative products, 2) claim them as their own, 3) move onto the next new thing. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Dr. Jorge Caballero
If there's no clarity on either front soon, then Mastodon will keep burning fuel to achieve escape velocity only to find that it reached orbit by jettisoning all the passengers and much of the crew. At that point, the users that remain will be left with a highly-scalable social network that nobody wants to use b/c they moved onto something else.
*Or* servers will slow to a crawl, users will get fed up, and go somewhere else.
Dr. Jorge Caballero
The challenge stems from orthogonal demands: 1) scaling alienates early-adopters and 2) scaling in response to overwhelming demand exacerbates the onboarding headaches and undermines user experience.
That's where Mastodon is *right now*
Where Mastodon goes largely depends on whether the UI/UX issues can be addressed by a 3rd-party client, like the much-anticipated @ivory (h/t @paul) *and* how well large Mastodon instances handle surges in traffic.
Dr. Jorge Caballero
If done poorly, scaling will annoy new participants. Mastodon's onboarding is an obvious weakness. Once new users are onboarded, the UI is laden with jargon and the UX is opinionated in counterintuitive ways－ this creates friction for mainstream users who just want to do one of 2 things:
- publish content to their audience
- consume content as a member of the audience
Dr. Jorge Caballero
I say this because the technical discussions have firmly shifted from feature development to scalability. Scaling infrastructure, moderation, and federation is easier said than done.
Scaling will consume resources that were previously dedicated to customization and bespoke implementations. This shift will drive away participants that conflate federated social media with federated chat rooms.
Dr. Jorge Caballero
Right about now is the time when early adopters get annoyed by the newcomers. I've been there, and I get it. But responding to a benign observation about building an audience isn't going to change the trajectory of this place.
And, right now, Mastodon is at a critical inflection point. It's crossed beyond the point of no return: it is firmly in the valley of death for social media networks. There are only two outcomes at this point:
- become a dominant social network
- crash and burn
Dr. Jorge Caballero
I've been on social media since 1996－ long before it was even known as social media. I was among the earliest FB users－ back when it was only open to Harvard, Stanford, and a few other schools. Several good friends + long-time acquaintances were early employees at FB, LinkedIn, Yahoo, AOL, among others. I've served on advisory boards for Twitter and Doximity.
Speaking from decades of experience: Mastodon isn't unique. It's exactly where it should be at this stage in its development.
Dr. Jorge Caballero
This whole notion of Mastodon being about connecting 1-on-1 with other persons strikes me as a fundamental misunderstanding of how online social networks operate. Mastodon has plenty of trolls and sockpuppet accounts. They run different personas/scripts/playbooks than the ones you'll find on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Insta, etc but make no mistake about it: they're here.
Anyone who believes that there's a genuine human person behind every avatar of a cat or a dog is assuming major risk.
Dr. Jorge Caballero
If growing your audience on social media isn't your thing, that's cool, but it's silly if not naive to assert that any social media network is ""supposed to be" about anything. It will be whatever the plurality of *active* participants in the network decide it will be.
Mastodon will never be whatever reactionaries say it's "supposed to be" about. That's simply not how social networks function. Never have, never will.
For specific examples, refer to IRC circa 1996 or Twitter circa Nov 5, 2022.
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