I've been thinking about Mastodon vs Twitter and positioning. It's a neat case study on understanding value vs features.
Mastodon has many differentiated features - federated servers, content moderation, no ads, etc. But the opportunity for them is to clearly position the value those features enable. Example - users should understand the value of decentralization (no company owns your data) vs. seeing this as simply something different from Twitter and kind of a pain. #positioning #marketing
@aprildunford @Tom_Huth this definitely stopped me the first time I looked at Mastodon.
A message like "Don't worry, you can easily change later'" would go a long way in this case.
@aprildunford You're right, (as usual) it is really interesting and may get more interesting over time.
If Mastodon continues to grow, even slowly, one thing that may help amplify that unique positioning is further feature differentiation. Mastodon is a relatively small population spread across a modest number of federated servers that differentiate largely based on content policies today. But what if the servers start to differentiate in other ways?
For instance, what if membership in a server is based on completing a KYC (know your customer) style identity verification to prove who you are? Or what if it is based on regular membership dues to cover costs and add new features to the platform? What if a community wanted to use their collective buying power to support journalism and license access to third party content based on a negotiated group license? Those servers, and mastodon as a whole, would be positioned in a completely new way than where they are today, all because of the core positioning they started with.
@aprildunford I am seeing these servers as simpler, digital versions of the city-states that Neal Stephenson wrote about in The Diamond Age.
Today what we call being in a media “bubble” may actually evolve into more complex self-organizing communities based on a shared sets of values. Those shared values are the foundation for new society / culture to emerge.
It’s already happening. It has profound implications for brands.
@aprildunford You can launch as "we're opposed to the other guys"
You can only succeed long term by saying "This is what we're best at."
I think we're a long way from there just now. :)
@aprildunford Also nice to see you over here from Twitter.
It's much quieter here than the firehose that is Twitter. 😋
@aprildunford what is potentially interesting is that you could set up a #marketing Mastodon Server in a vertical and establish yourself as the home for a topic, not just a voice.
This is only possible in this federated model...
And especially at this point in time.
Hotrolledsteel.social
Or
Marketing.social
That sounds like a good idea, Steven
I’m wondering how broad or narrow the topic should be
Maybe can just copy some of the existing topic tags in Twitter 🤔
@aprildunford oh heck yes. i’ve been hoping you’d share thoughts on positioning for Mastodon!
been super interesting scrolling through all the comments here.
@aprildunford How so?
✅ Searching for people & hashtags works across the entire federated network
✅ People can follow anyone anywhere in any community in the network
✅ People can view feeds that span the entire federated network (& you can view a local feed too, focused on local discussion)
...and Masto provides the added value of:
✅ Local admin-managed banning/suspension
✅ Admin defederation of entire (toxic) communities
✅ EDITING OF TOOTS! 😁
> the opportunity for them is to clearly position the value
It's up to us though. There is no "them" here it's us. All of us are in it together.
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