Yesterday, I told a lot of disappointed folks that follower counts are often inaccurate.
A few chimed in that home instance follower counts are always accurate. This is not true either.
Scenarios for why home instance follower counts could be inaccurate is if instance:
1. Turns off follower count data
2. Gets re-installed
3. Migrates to another server or different software
4. Deliberately misrepresents follower counts
Bottom line: do NOT use follower counts as any core KPI metric!
I mean, follower count is an altogether awful KPI metric no matter what social media site you use.
On Twitter, Instagram, TikTok etc. you could *always* fake follower counts.
They were always used to try to convince the gullible that certain accounts were always more important than they actually were.
It's just that on the Fediverse, it's now easier than ever to pop the illusion than follower counts are important metrics -- simply because the data is so inconsistent.
That makes me happy.
A lot of folks are like, "Entertainers need a social graph to get hired!"
That's still available on Twitter if you want it 😉
But consider: maybe *some* social media doesn't always have to be used to flog your act or product or whatever thing you're selling.
Maybe you can use *some* social media to instead interact with genuine humans instead of an abstract "audience".
Look at the loss of an accurate social graph as a different kind of opportunity.
@atomicpoet you’ve put it well.
I’m a marketer and I initially joined Mastodon just to see what the fuss was about and to get a sense of where social media was going.
Within minutes my purpose for being here shifted. The value of Mastodon is closer to Reddit than to Twitter. It’s a place to learn, see what intelligent people are working on and talking about, and maybe even connect and talk to those intelligent people.
I’m here to soak things up like a sponge.
Chris Trottier
Mariya Delano
Danielle, The Head Alchemystic
Oblomov