Tip 1. Follow LOTS of people. This is early stage social network so there's tonnes of following back.

BUT CRUCIALLY! Before you go on a following spree, write a short bio and an intro post!

Like online dating, first impressions count. Make sure that when you pop up in people's 'X followed you' notifications, you have enough info posted that they can decide you look cool.

Don't be blank: an intro that says who you are, maybe one post that shows off your blog/images/podcast.

Tip2 : Don't be disheartened if you don't have lots of follows just yet. Keep posting.

Follower count matters WAY less than on Twitter.

The Mastodon home feed shows posts of people you follow in the order they posted them (or boosted them).

This means that even if you only have 3 followers, if one of yours has 5k and they boost you? You get seen by their 5k followers, and so on.

It's like how Twitter used to be, and it's MUCH more egalitarian.

Keep posting.

Tip3: Use hashtags! See at the top of this thread where I threw 3 random tags in? That's to try and nudge this thread into tag feeds to make it easier for the target users to find.

People genuinely use those here, like they used to back on Old Twitter.

You can even follow a specific hashtag in the same way you'd follow a person. Click #SexBlog and look at the top of the timeline, you should get the 'follow' icon.

Tip4: Don't be disheartened by the fact that some people have tonnes of followers. If you joined recently you missed out on a really nifty tool called Fedifinder which helped us (and definitely helped me) grab as many of my follows/followers as possible from Twitter and find them here.

Fedifinder doesn't work any more, because Musk shut down API access. But don't be fooled by numbers or led by them. They matter less here.

On that note...

Tip5: If you want to gain new followers, set aside some fun chill time to spend sharing your top 5 fave posts/pieces of content.

Post them, add CNs/images/hashtags, and try to include a spread of pieces. Like a little 'you' showcase! While you're doing it, boost/follow/chat to others - they'll see you and might like your stuff.

There's nowt sadder than someone lamenting how quiet a social network is when they're only following 5 people and haven't posted anything except the lament.

REMEMBER: having few followers is NOT the barrier that it was on Twitter! On Twitter, even if you were *literally following someone* you often wouldn't see their posts in your timeline. If the algorithm decided they weren't important enough for you, then you didn't see them.

Here, you see the posts of everyone you follow*, in the order they posted them.

*unless your server has defederated theirs, please ignore all talk of federation/instances for now tho it's very boring.

Tip6: Ask yourself if you're having fun. I mean it.

I feel like the Twitter exodus has everyone going 'where we off to?!' in a panic, like all the cool kids are going to the Ritz for a party and we're worried we will end up in the wrong place, having a pint with three nobodies at the Dog and Duck in Romford.

But social stuff isn't fun if we're just doing it to try and stay 'in' with cool kids. Be playful, be sexy, be you, and if you're not having fun don't force yourself.

Tip7: This is a boring practical one, but super important: ALT text (description you can add when you upload an image) and CWs (see the icon at the bottom of the post box - sometimes expressed as an exclamation mark in a speech bubble) are super important here.

I've CW'd this thread 'sex people' so I can boost your replies without needing to add new warnings. Try to use both of them when necessary - lots of people here won't boost you if you don't. They're super useful tools!

Tip8: There are dickheads here, just like there are on Twitter. My fave moment on Masto so far was when I expressed a boundary with a gentleman and he replied “methinks you need to get a sense of humour.” then blocked me. 🥰

Felt like Twitter, felt like home.

Use the mute/block functions - that's what they're there for.

I have to KEEP reminding myself - you're not here to please *all* the people, you're here to find *your* people.