Tim MakJul 22, 2023

Are you finding Mastodon to be less vibrant/active?

I’m worried that we are not getting as much engagement on our Ukraine war reporting as we used to.

We’re trying to decide which social media platforms to continue posting on, given how much effort it takes to replicate across all of them.

If you want to send a signal to us that we should keep posting here, will you sign up for our newsletter? http://Counteroffensive.substack.com

I’m only asking Mastodon users today so we can gauge impact.

The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak | Substack

A war correspondent's open notebook, reporting live from Kyiv. Compelling human stories that illustrate what’s happening during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Click to read The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

Show threadScott Tribe - Proud Ketchup Chip NationalistJul 22, 2023
@timkmak If it hasn't been mentioned already, Mastodon is much more tag-dependent on finding topics or posts.. so if you're writing on Ukraine, putting a #Ukraine tag on at the end or in the post somewhere will help matters.
Show threadTim MakJul 22, 2023

@stribeprogblog it can take twenty minutes just to copy and paste a long thread into each social media platform. An hour to write the thread.

Adding tags would substantially increase our daily effort. And would the juice be worth the squeeze?

Show threadScott Tribe - Proud Ketchup Chip NationalistJul 22, 2023

@timkmak
typing in a #Ukraine tag in your posts takes what, 10 seconds, if that?

Edit: If you start typing in the Ukraine tag, you'll see how often it gets used. on my particular mastodon server, it gets used or seen 6K/week, if I take what that means. On other higher used Mastodon servers. it may be higher then that.

Show threadTim Mak
@stribeprogblog times 26 posts times every day? #Ukraine
Jul 22, 2023 at 1:35pmWeb
Show threadScott Tribe - Proud Ketchup Chip NationalistJul 22, 2023
@timkmak you asked for suggestions to help increase engagement; that was my suggestion (and an easy one to do at that) to increase your engagement on Mastodon for #Ukraine posts. If its too much work to do an extra 5-10 seconds of typing on your posts, then there's not much more I or others can say :) )
Show threadTim MakJul 22, 2023
@stribeprogblog not discounting your advice just thinking about our poor social media guy
Show threadBorisJul 22, 2023
@timkmak
I always have often used tags pinned in my clipboard, no typing involved.
Show threadCromernJul 22, 2023
@timkmak @stribeprogblog I find it weird that you worry about engagments, but can't even tag a post. Following everyone that posts about #ukraine takes a lot more then following that simple hashtag. Make a doc with all the hastags, then copy paste one more time. 🙂
Show threadSamir Al-BattranJul 22, 2023
@cromern @timkmak @stribeprogblog
And there are tools that add the hashtags on your behalf, you just need to classify the post and the hashtags are added automatically
Show threadTim MakJul 22, 2023
@samir @cromern @stribeprogblog what are they called? Will look
Show threadSamir Al-BattranJul 22, 2023

@timkmak @cromern @stribeprogblog
I built one of them
https://fedica.com/twitter/schedule-twitter-threads

You write your thread once, you add hashtags with a click (hashtag groups, or automatically by category)
It works for Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and even Bluesky

Threads work for Twitter, Mastodon and Bluesky. The rest, it makes one post out of the thread

Scheduling Twitter Threads

Supercharge your twitter posts with scheduled twitter threads!

Show threadTim MakJul 22, 2023
@samir @cromern @stribeprogblog I will definitely check it out.
Show threadSamir Al-BattranJul 22, 2023
@timkmak @cromern @stribeprogblog
Great, if you have any questions feel free to reach out at any time!
Show threadDave MangotJul 22, 2023

@timkmak @samir @cromern @stribeprogblog +1 for using a tool to do all the "copying and pasting" for you. Computers are really good at this stuff. Worth many times the cost.

I teach my clients "Don't have people do the work that computers can do." People are intelligent, creative, and insightful. Have them do that all day instead.

Show threadShanie MyrsTearJul 22, 2023
@samir @timkmak @cromern @stribeprogblog Yep, #WorkSmarterNotHarder is the name of the game! Even some #Mastodon apps can add tags for you automatically. #IceCubes on #iOS is simply “push the icon that looks like a printer -> add tags”. The tags here were automatically added; I defined nothing.
Show threadMastodon MigrationJul 22, 2023
@timkmak @samir @cromern @stribeprogblog
Samir's tool also facilitates composing once and posting to multiple apps, threading, and time scheduling of your post.
Show threadSamir Al-BattranJul 22, 2023
@mastodonmigration @timkmak @cromern @stribeprogblog
Thank you!
And it's the only tool that supports Mastodon threads, and now the only one that supports Bluesky!
Show threadAnders ChristensenJul 22, 2023

@cromern
That is quite true.

YouTube is about 'like and subscribe'. Twitter is about getting retweets and followers. Mastodon is about adding the right hashtags and getting boosted.

@timkmak @stribeprogblog