Mastodawn

Collecting anecdotes, data, and anecdata on people and orgs who’ve left Twitter and found higher engagement from ostensibly fewer followers. This is in preparation for a renewed pitch to the org I’m in, to begin the process of x-trication. Boosts appreciated!

RE 🇨🇦Dec 11, 2023

@misc I never had a huge follower count on Twitter to begin with, maybe around 100 people. I've only got 54 follows on Mastodon.

It's only happened a couple of times on Mastodon so far, but I've had some of my posts get over 50 boost and likes. Maybe not a lot, but nothing I've ever done on twitter got me that level of engagement.

Erik Moeller Dec 11, 2023

Freedom of the Press Foundation has 1% of the nominal followers that it has on Twitter/X, but many of the individual posts have seen more engagement here.

Erik Moeller Dec 11, 2023

You may find my "eXit spreadsheet" useful to look at how other orgs are faring -- some who've focused on the fediverse for even just a year have exceeded their followers on Twitter/X as well.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1p5crRGK0Y9MuFsfkyOBEC--3wXxFTd71fPCUcIFPXK0/edit#gid=0

bit.ly/eXit — Organizations and individuals who have left X (and where they've gone) - Google Drive

Nicolas Kayser-Bril Dec 11, 2023

@misc Got ~10% of the followers I had on Twitter, but have 10+ interactions on almost all toots and regularly have 100+ boosts ; things that only happened on Twitter every year, on divisive topics.

CorinnaBalkow Dec 11, 2023

@misc A German IT Magazine wrote about their first year on Mastodon

https://www.heise.de/hintergrund/heise-online-auf-Mastodon-Bilanz-nach-dem-ersten-Jahr-im-Fediverse-9354286.html

heise online auf Mastodon: Bilanz nach dem ersten Jahr im Fediverse

Der Kurznachrichtendienst Mastodon ist vor einem Jahr stark gewachsen. Auch heise online hat eine Präsenz eingerichtet und eine Twitter-Alternative vorgefunden.

heise online

jwz Dec 11, 2023

@misc Anecdata: https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2023/10/10.html

Wherein Twitter delenda est

A tale of two polls: both ran for two days and were boosted halfway through. Twitter: 22 votes from 6,949 followers. Mastodon: 83 votes from 975 followers. If you're still posting to the Nazi Hellsite because "but muh engagements", you really don't have to keep doing that. Speaking of, please follow us on Mastodon! It really is better. Come on in, the water's fine. We are ...

klausfiend has moved Dec 11, 2023

@misc Way more organic interaction here. All I do on hellsite these days is remove follows by "<woman's name>[0-9]{4,}" with no posts and no followers.

CubeRootOfTrue Dec 11, 2023

@misc Well I wouldn't say I've "left" X but I am done with it, and I don't even care why this happened. Leave it locked. I'm more interested in mathematics related posts anyway

Mark IJbema Dec 11, 2023

@misc yesterday in my feed. I've seen the sentiment multiple times https://mastodon.social/@GeePawHill/111554771081963121

🇺🇦 🇵🇸 ✡️Dec 11, 2023

@misc I've had the reverse experience. I have more followers on Mastodon after a year than I had after 14 years on Twitter.

Cassandrich Dec 11, 2023

@misc I had ~4000 followers on Twitter built over around 8 years, got 1/4 that here in first few months and much more engagement, up to 1/2 the raw number now after a year.

PrinceOfDenmark Dec 11, 2023

@misc Following #hashtags dramatically changed how I engage with a social platform. I built my own algorithm, effectively, and I see posts on topics that interest me along with other users who share that interest. The hashtags help me find who might be fun to follow.

Because of those shared interests, my posts tend to be read by people likely to interact on those topics.

The posts I see here make me feel happier and more connected. So I come back & The circle continues.

elle mundy Dec 11, 2023

@misc anecdotally, i’ve had much more engagement on here, and i’m still not at my peak twitter follower count. anecdata: i’ve had 4 viral posts here in 1 year vs 1 viral post on twitter in the 13 years i was on it

ploum Dec 11, 2023

@misc : it is in French, but in those two pieces, I explain, with examples, how the followers count is mostly a lie and how people got a lot more engagement on Mastodon (taking the example of a Signal message)

https://ploum.net/2023-10-29-le-droit-de-supprimer-twitter.html

https://ploum.net/2023-07-23-pour-une-poignee-de-followers.html

Pourquoi j’ai supprimé mon compte Twitter (et pourquoi vous pouvez probablement en faire autant sans hésiter)

Pourquoi j’ai supprimé mon compte Twitter (et pourquoi vous pouvez probablement en faire autant sans hésiter) par Ploum - Lionel Dricot.

Hilton Travis Dec 11, 2023

@misc Yup. Twitter was well killed by the Elongated Muskrat...

Robert Taylor Dec 11, 2023

@misc fuck Muskva

Dr. Fyzziks Dec 11, 2023

@misc I *think* @scalzi posted something about his engagement numbers awhile back, but I may be mistaken.

@misc My opensource-project (@MapComplete) did! The Twitter and Mastodon-accounts were setup at the same time. During the big migration waves, I went out of my way to type a welcome message and explanation of what the project is about...

Which also means I'm failing your requirement, because it has now about 4 times the amount of followers here compared to twitter...

In either case, way more enthusiasm here!

Ben Evans Dec 11, 2023

@misc My own experience: https://mastodon.social/deck/@kittylyst/111561973439507989

joeziehmer Dec 11, 2023

@misc Have achieve so much more in maturation as a photographer then on X. Along with facts of freeing up my schedule for more ambitious projects and under takings.

SamuelJohnson Dec 11, 2023

@misc Mastodon differs in one key respect that may be persuasive: there's no algorithm foisting contrarian rubbish on people based on things they engaged with historically (in order to engage them some more and sell more ads). It saves time. And time is often money, or peace of mind.

Jon (now at neuromatch.social)Dec 12, 2023

@samueljohnson From an activist perspective, the lack of an algorithmic feed isn't necessarily a feature. Most orgs have built skills in manipulating the algorithms -- and orgs with a budget can substitute money for time. It takes a very different approach to be successful on the fediverse, so the kind of proof points
@misc is asking for are crucial to persuading orgs to invest in trying it out.

SamuelJohnson Dec 12, 2023

@jdp23 @misc Higher engagement (quantitatively assessed) isn't a great metric, though I've seen numerous reports of higher and more meaningful levels of engagement w a smaller audience here.

"Activists" gaming algorithms is what has made monetized social media a toxic hellscape w adverse real world consequences. Moral leadership in giving up that game should count, even w little engagement at first. It's not for everyone ofc.

Jon (now at neuromatch.social)Dec 12, 2023

well @misc there's your answer, silly you for paying attention to stuff like engagement that the org actually cares about, much more effective tell them that they've made social media a toxic hellscape and they should now show moral leadership. Let me know how it goes!

Noah Kennedy Dec 11, 2023

@misc anecdotally, twitter was too "loud" & crowded for me to meaningfully engage with the space

i've found conversations on the fediverse to be of higher quality since switching.

Boba Dec 11, 2023

@misc I have 10% the followers that I did on Twitter, roughly the same amount of engagement on posts. I also get lots of repeat interactions with my followers, fewer people who only interact once, so I've gotten to build a lot more actual relationships on here.

sadele2 Dec 11, 2023

Steve Herman (@w7voa) in July posted comparisons of 1 post:

"Interesting comparisons for the nearly identical posts I made earlier today about the death of Kevin Mitnick:"

Facebook: (4.5k followers) - 1 comment, 6 likes
Mastodon: (47k followers) - 42 boosts, 49 likes
Post.news (5.2k followers) - no engagement
Threads (<500 followers) - 2 likes
Twitter: (114.2k followers) - 7 retweets, 3 likes

https://mastodon.social/@w7voa@journa.host/110748637457487061

Steve Herman Dec 12, 2023

@sadele2 @misc I’ll do a comparison again soon. That July one may have been skewed by my hunch that a higher percentage of folks on Mastodon were more likely to know who was Kevin Mitnick than on the other platforms.

Darwin Woodka Dec 12, 2023

@sadele2 @misc @w7voa I would expect more of us on Mastodon actually knew who Kevin Mitnick was as well.

samuelmederos 🍃Dec 11, 2023

@misc Como punto de partida en redes no hay que dar importancia a los likes es lo más sano. En mi experiencia en 13 años en Twitter interacción casi nula. Aquí en tres años y usando está red poco, más interacción con mucha diferencia.

gavi Dec 12, 2023

@misc I never really had a large follower count anywhere but here is the most I’ve had any interactions with anyone. I don’t feel like I’m shouting into the void tbh

dB Cooper Dec 12, 2023

@gavi @misc *the void cups an ear*

Jon (now at neuromatch.social)Dec 12, 2023

@tchambers do you have any good references for @misc's question about higher engagement from orgs who have left Twitteer? ⬆️

Tim Chambers Dec 12, 2023

@jdp23 @misc Not lately for the Fediverse. Lots of anecdotes from a while back, but not seen comprehensive recent analysis on this.

Jesse Dec 12, 2023

@tchambers @jdp23 tbh looking for stuff about Bluesky and Threads too!

D. Griffin Jones Dec 12, 2023

@misc Cult of Mac (@cultofmac) has 700k+ followers on Twitter, 1k here on Mastodon and 13k on Threads. Engagement on Twitter has absolutely plummeted. “Views” are the same as they’ve always been, which makes me highly suspicious they’re faked, or at least inflated beyond being a useful metric. Our hottest platform right now is Threads.

Zinnia Jones Dec 12, 2023

@misc 30.4K followers on Twitter, 2.4K on Mastodon. Posted the exact same GoFundMe fundraiser today - 17 retweets on Twitter, 22 boosts on Mastodon. Twitter is dwindling.

Zinnia Jones Dec 12, 2023

@misc Also comparing with Bluesky (1.3K followers). Posted the same selfie picture on Twitter and Bluesky; 72 likes on Twitter, 35 likes on Bluesky.

Kelly's Shenanigans 🇨🇦Dec 12, 2023

@misc https://yeg.bike/@Kellyshenanigans/110503255435822938

Silvia Rasmussen Dec 12, 2023

@misc happily left and haven’t missed it a bit. I get a bit irritated when the news feeds I follow refer to something on the social network I was previously on and don’t care to support in any way.

Che Tibby Dec 12, 2023

@misc I've definitely found this via a mix of mastodon and bluesky

Estarriol, Terrorist Dragon Dec 12, 2023

@misc It appears that without the algruthm and some huge and/or paid accounts swamoping the timeline, the signal to noise ratio is much much lower, so messages are actually getting through.

Also big up the auto hastag follow and the groups features for targetting viewers.

sbi Dec 12, 2023

@misc @annajayne I haven't logged into Twitter for quite a long time, so I did not check, but I think the renewable energy/battery thread pinned to my profiles has had way more boosts here than the old one of Twitter.
Last year I asked whether I know someone in Helsinki who could do a favor to a son of mine. I did this on both platforms, but Mastodon's engagement wiped the floor with Twitter's.
Which seems quite surprising, as I had ~900 followers on Twitter (IIRC), but only 200 here.

Mycotropic Dec 12, 2023

My #TrollLife on that site was pretty straightforward;

Create an account with a random historical name (I did many of the #Wallachian kings for instance)

Search for terms such as #Patriot #Abortion and #Trump and friend every horrible person I found

Agree with literally horrible points of view for a few days - typically a week generated a few thousand followers

Be honest, kind and open minded until the first death threat

Change password to a random string

Repeat.

Kakurady (🔜 NFC, FE)Dec 12, 2023

@misc fursuiters I photographed at furry conventions appear to still prefer X, with some moving to Bluesky; only a few are on ActivityPub-based communities. I could count the spreadsheet later for anecdata.

Among furries in general, there are enough Fedi users at Furfest to half-fill a conference room for the Furry Fediverse panel.

Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher, PhD Dec 12, 2023

@misc identical threads posted yesterday to X and Mastodon, much higher engagement on here. On X I have ~8500 followers, Mastodon ~2700.

In the time I've been cross-posting, sometimes something will do better on one place than the other and it's hard to predict what and why, but definitely I've had really good engagement on here!

spv Dec 12, 2023

@misc i feel like there’s more real people here — more of my posts seem to start conversations

Ether Diver Dec 12, 2023

@misc I can provide you with a screenshot of my tracking from Bandcamp which shows almost exactly 3x the traffic in the year since I joined Mastodon than in the year prior when I used Twitter primarily.

Jesse Dec 12, 2023

@etherdiver That sounds great!

Ether Diver Dec 12, 2023

@misc
Here you go. As you can see from my profile, I joined almost exactly a year ago, on Dec 15. My engagement/streams on Bandcamp started climbing almost immediately, and continued. Last year I had just shy of 3k streams. This year, I'm on track to have just under 9k for the year.

Sales also increased by roughly the same amount. My following here is similar size to my Twitter following (which I no longer use) but it took me a few months to get there once I arrived here.

Ether Diver Dec 12, 2023

@misc if you need me to drill into this data more, lmk

Ether Diver Dec 12, 2023

@misc Actually, had a closer look and sales went up 5x! So 3x the streams and 5x the sales. Wow, thanks Mastodon!

Ether Diver Dec 12, 2023

@misc I also added tmblr and bluesky over the course of this year, but I barely use bluesky and I almost never promote my music on tumblr (the occasional post, maybe a dozen mentions in the year, vs almost daily promo here, which is my primary social media home) since tumblr is where I go to repost pictures of old computers and be exposed to the weirdest people in the universe, both of which I find very relaxing.

FCLC Dec 12, 2023

@misc It's a counter point, but I still see significantly more discovery on twitter than on masto.

number of discussions is probably ~2x on twitter, but in depth discussions (say more than 2 back and fourths) is typically higher on masto.

The weird part is that a *lot* of "longer" masto discussions will suddently change into DM/mentioned only chains at the drop of a hat.

I want to say somewhere between 10 and 20% of all my posts on masto are mentioned only DMs mid conversation

Jen Dec 12, 2023

@misc anecdata:

@AuthorHelp had several hundred followers on the birdsite, but rarely got more than a handful of retweets and comments.

We've been here a year and have successfully run the first #FediBookFair with a couple of hundred people engaging.

Doug Whitfield [Minneapolis]Dec 13, 2023

@misc I never really got any engagement on Twitter. unless you are a niche celebrity, you get tanked there by algorithm. if the org is a niche celebrity, you'll have to go elsewhere for info but leaving was pretty easy for me