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How to game the chronological timeline:

tl;dr replies

Over time on the Fediverse I’ve figured out how to improve engagement with posts. It’s related to the chronological timeline. What works for Twitter doesn’t work here, and vice versa.

First, post something actually interesting. Then think of something else interesting to add on.

Wait for someone to reply who gives you the opportunity to say the thing that you want. Then reply with the thing, and write your reply for a general audience.

Your reply will appear in people’s feeds, and if it’s interesting they’ll click it to know more, thereby seeing the original post. Continue this process. Each time you do it, it puts something in the feed people can click to see the original post.

As people reply and you reply back, it becomes a collaboration.

This is actually the natural way people engage, which is why the Fediverse is successful.

But you have to be careful about who you reply to, and why. Don’t reply based on emotions, reply to have your message seen by an audience.

For that reason, replying to negative posts is often bad, as it draws audience attention to the negativity. Unless you reply back with a joke, then people see you’re a good sport.

Some other tips:

• If someone writes a really good comment on your post, you can repost it. This has the same effect as replying.

• After some time, you can repost your own post to put it back into people’s feeds.

• Don’t overdo it, or people will get annoyed and unfollow you. (Your posting behavior should be natural and not forced.)

It’s kind of obvious, but if you’re used to sites like Twitter with algorithms, it might take a moment to adjust. People are filtering in and out all day, and no algorithm is going to magically put your posts in their feed. So to be seen, you have to do a little work.