Quick Rundown on Mastadon for Marketers
The havoc going on at Twitter has shifted attention about a lesser known microblogging platform called Mastadon.
You may have already heard, Mastadon is yet another social microblogging platform. It was relatively unknown until Elon’s acquisition and tumult at Twitter. People can’t stop talking about alternatives!
But Mastadon along with a few other obscure microblogging platforms might now be a better choice for some people who are frustrated with Twitter’s business direction and potential brand safety issues.
Same, Same
Mastadon’s general capabilities and key features are similar to Twitter, its UI and overall experience will require a little more exploration and fiddling around before you get used to it.
Just like Twitter, you can have up to 500 characters in a post, images are detected automatically so you don’t have to add them manually, hashtags work the same way as they do on Twitter and other popular platforms. You may find other servers have forked the source code to allow a larger character limit.
It also uses hashtags instead of retweets to group posts and makes it easy to follow conversations. It’s also a federation: you can talk with people on other servers and the software will handle that for you.
Toots are how you interact with your friends on Mastadon. A toot is a short post that you can write and send out to the world.
Toots are like tweets, except they’re called “toots” (or posts) instead of tweets. Twitter already taken ‘tweets’, so Mastodon creators came up with their own name for these kind of posts: toots! And if there’s one thing we’ve learned from this experience it’s that when you have a good idea like this one first you should make sure no one else will have it before doing anything else.
Like most social media networks, there’s an option for users to “follow” each other (similarly to Twitter) so they can see what posts the other person makes on their own timeline (the stream of all posts by people you follow).
Talk to people on other servers
Mastadon allows you to talk to people on other servers, and their software will deal with talking to your server for you. This is a good thing because it means that if someone wants to use Mastadon and they already have another social media site they like, they can just use the Mastadon client or instance on that other site.
Rundown of other common features
- Just like Twitter, you can post pictures, videos and links.
- Use hashtags to group posts into conversations or topics.
- Send direct messages to other users.
- There is a mute feature to block accounts that you don’t want to see in your feed.
- You can make friends with other people on the same server, or across servers with the federation feature. — You can post statuses and view the feeds of other users. — You can join “rooms” to talk about specific topics.
- You can set up a profile and customize it with an avatar, bio and status
- You can follow other users. — You can comment on other people’s posts and share them with your friends.
- A “Quick Chat” feature is available to talk to people without having to send a message.
- The “Topics” feature allows you to find other people in your area who share your interests. — You can use the “Nearby” feature to find people nearby, or those who are traveling through the same location as you. — You can stream videos from YouTube, including live streams.
- Use the “Streams” feature to find other users with similar interests. — You can customize your profile page with an avatar, bio and status. — You can follow other users. — You can comment on other people’s posts and share them with your friends.
Differences in the plumbing
Fediverse
Mastadon is designed as a federation called “Fediverse” which is just a collection of servers that are connected by software. The software allows users to interact with each other and to see their posts on other servers.
Various types of servers work can work very differently, they communicate using a technical standard called ActivityPub, so if you’re not on the same type of server, you can still interact as though you were. Think of it like a channel with a built-in universal translator for servers.
The concept is fairly straightforward: it’s like a party line where only one phone connection is necessary to make multiple calls at once. In this case, though, it’s servers talking to other servers instead of phones talking to each other.
It has many features in common with Twitter (like hashtags) and going beyond what Twitter offers could be considered its biggest advantage over mainstream social media sites like Facebook or Instagram — at least for those who value privacy and control over their data above all else!
Your own? or do you prefer hosted?
Mastadon can also be run without having to run your own mastodon server. You can use mastadon on a Mastodon hosted by someone else, or even just by using the Mastodon API.
This way you can still have the benefits of running your own instance but not have to worry about maintaining it yourself. You can also run a server on a different port (by default it’s 5002) and even on a different domain if you prefer.
Because it’s run as a federation, you can have multiple accounts on multiple Mastodon servers. This means that you can use your preferred server and still follow people who are using a different one. If you want to do this, just make sure to set up two separate instances of Mastodon: one for your personal account and another for following people on other servers.
You may be wondering if there are any security benefits over using an existing social network like Instagram or Facebook? Well there certainly are! You get complete privacy when using Mastadon because nobody else has access to any data about what you’re doing online except for yourself (and anyone else who might be partaking in conversations with you).
It’s a still a WIP
Masaton’s user experience can still be classified as a work-in-progress. For the mainstream user, it can be difficult to navigate the UI, you may encounter a few bugs at the start, and the onboarding process is just not that user-friendly. You may also find it a little slow and laggy at times, which can be frustrating for the new user.
But with the groundswell of attention from Twitter’s tumultuous reorganization, we’ll likely see improvements accelerated. Another reason why it is also difficult to use because there are so many nested features and functions that it’s hard to know where to start. It has a lot of potential but to ensure a turn-key and elegant onboarding experience, it’s not quite ready for prime time yet.
The most obvious problem with Mastadon is that it doesn’t have a large user base. This means that the chances of you finding people to talk to are extremely low, especially if you’re looking for like-minded people who share your interests and values. It has far fewer users than Twitter, but has been growing.
The second problem is that Mastadon doesn’t really have any user features which make it stand out from other social networks. Indeed, there are some significant changes when it comes to the inner plumbing, but does any new user care about that if it just works out of box?
How can marketers use Mastadon?
Treat Mastadon as another substitute for Twitter. Time will tell on its ability to become a the go-to place for Twitter dissidents. It can be an interesting space that can offer marketers a new angle on content. If you’re looking to target the niche of people who are interested in technology and current events, then Mastadon could be a great platform for you.
We expect the users to be very active and often comment on posts. This means that if you create a great piece of content, it’s likely to be shared. Mastadon users are also highly engaged on the platform and often comment on posts which can help drive more traffic back to your website or social media page.
So, if you’re looking for a new social network to try out, why not give Mastadon a try? It can be an opportunity to explore the features, that are different from other social networks and you can share your experience with others.
I’m passionate about helping people build great and innovative products. We’ve taken on the communication challenges of startups, entrepreneurs, B2B software companies and organizations working with university researchers. Visit us at signetscience.com to learn more.
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