Megan Marie HartBOOST OR QUOTE THIS!
Trying to find out how many people see a post without hashtags. Thank you!
(edit: Why, you ask? Long thread coming up … 1/7)
(Nobody actually asked why, but I imagine someone must have thought it.) Curiosity is one reason, the other is a recent offline discussion about whether we are hindering a more wide spread adoption of the Fediverse because we dislike advertisements. It’s possible that brands and “influencer”-type people aren’t getting the kick they’re used to from the Fediverse because there are no metrics showing how many people have seen a post. Perhaps it’s different with your own instance – I don’t know!
2/7
2/7
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that people would want to test the waters by creating an account on an established instance before committing to setting up their own, even if they have the necessary knowledge and funds. I think people have become accustomed to the insane numbers on commercial social media: millions of views, thousands of likes and hundreds of comments. (I have never been part of this; my profession is too niche. Classical music accounts for just 2–5% of music sales,
3/7
3/7
… and opera is primarily a live art form, so its market share is so small as to be essentially unmeasurable. I never bothered to find out how many people I reach vs how many interactions a post gets. I really couldn’t care less!) Brands and “Influencer”-minded people, even people just used to commercial socials testing the fediverse might feel like it is not working for them and leave again, so I was wondering about the *potential* reach of a toot.
4/7
4/7
I feel like I get more meaningful interaction (and perhaps even ticket sales!) from a Mastodon post about an upcoming show than from posts on other social media platforms. But a “feeling” dosen’t help when trying to convince people to join. Or to get active. My current theater @staatstheaterdarmstadt is on here since 2022 – zero posts! I would like them to get active or even set up their own instance. I think every theater should have its own instance! It can’t be more work than FB and IG.
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5/7
All theaters have websites. I’m not tech-savvy (my husband takes care of that for me), but it seems to me that if you have a website and domain, setting up a Mastodon server can’t be that hard. Perhaps it’s even possible to run it as an outlet only, then they wouldn’t have to deal with moderation. I think every publicly funded entity should have a presence on the Fediverse instead of commercial social media. (Or at least in addition to.) My experimental toot is meant to create an example …
6/7
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… to demonstrate that Fediverse posts are worth the time and effort. Perhaps there is also an argument for a feature request: maybe there should be audience metrics for toots?! Though I imagine that could be difficult due to Federation. Again, I have no idea if one already gets numbers and insight by running an instance.)
Perhaps we can move beyond numbers in the long run, but for now, I fear people enjoy them even if they gain nothing from them. Kinda like a game highscore, I suppose.
7/7
Marcin Jakubowski@meganmariehart I am reading your posts carefully. :) Sadly, it's far too far to travel from Greifswald to Darmstadt, but I'm really envious of the programme at your theatre.
@jakmarcin Thank you! Do you go to Theater Vorpommern? I auditioned there years ago, nothing came of it though. I have fond memories of the region and salty liquorice!
@meganmariehart Yes, I do. This is a luxury that I can watch an opera, or listen to philharmonic concert in such a small town.
I am a bit envious, as we have no chance to see Aida, which is my favorite opera ever. This is very nice in Darmstadt that the theater has productions for children.
Ps Indeed, summer here is wonderful. Winter not so much. ;-)
I am a bit envious, as we have no chance to see Aida, which is my favorite opera ever. This is very nice in Darmstadt that the theater has productions for children.
Ps Indeed, summer here is wonderful. Winter not so much. ;-)
@jakmarcin Our Aida production is going to the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, which is probably closer to where you are than to where I am, if you want to see it! (Highly recommended! It's a fantastic production. And I'm not just saying that because I was in it!)
HansAgree!!!
In fact I don't want them to be on X, Whatsapp etc and should also not be allowed to use Windows ideally.
David Scott Moyer@meganmariehart I currently have a reel on IG that has gotten 270K likes. I didn't create it. Someone on mastodon posted it, I downloaded the video, and reposted it there. I feel no great achievement with the numbers, but it's fun to watch it tick up and up and up. My other engagement hasn't changed much. A few hundred followers who generally don't respond to my daily posts, no more.
Magnus Ahltorp@meganmariehart When running an instance, it’s possible to retrieve the number of times or number of users that have viewed the post directly on that instance.
But you don’t see the number of views on the other instances the post has reached.
@ahltorp Thank you!!
schuh
@sonjaschuh01 Thank you so much! I’ll give this to someone who’s good with math and computers. I have a hunch it could be really helpful. (I’m terrible at math. Did you know dancers are better at math than musicians? I heard them count to eight!)
Grant_H@sonjaschuh01 @meganmariehart something I discovered is that if you post a link to an image, hit count on the image gives you an idea of views. I post my photos that way, and it seems to track. The same principle as "pixel trackers" in email. If you use a unique link for the post, to say a poster for the event, I don't see a problem with that.
mirabilos@grant_h @sonjaschuh01 @meganmariehart no, it is instances that download the images, not users, because otherwise it would break privacy; the hit counts would be much lower than the actual views
@meganmariehart @sonjaschuh01 that tool cannot give a complete answer because it cannot see everyone’s follower lists (they can be set to be not shown to others)
@mirabilos It also dosen’t seem to take hashtags into account. Just tried it with my last post, and it basically gave me the sum of my followers plus the followers of the two accounts that boosted the post, and I dont think it checks if the boosting accounts and I share followers. Might still be useful, I’ll keep it bookmarked!
KirstyI run a corporate page on other socials because I can advertise.
I just don’t know how many people (I think a number approaching zero) would follow an Australian shed and cladding company.
Jens Finkhäuser@Kirsty The thing is this: few people complain here about posting about what you do.
There are instances like .art that seek creators who post about what they do.
What people do NOT tend to react well to is the language of avdertising. This can also be about what you do (e.g. LinkedIn), or specific events and services.
What @meganmariehart gets 100% right is behaving as a human being with a job she shows passion for, where she will show what she does.
I haven't yet encountered anyone...
@Kirsty @meganmariehart ... that kind of thing.
On the other hand, I've also insta-blocked people who slid into my mentions with the same kind of language that I see in LinkedIn DMs.
We're people here. Our passions are part of us. That's what we connect with.
(I mean me, fair, but it seems to reflect a good part of fedi.)
David Mitchell 
I manage socials for a performing ensemble and I get similar responses from our pre-concert posts here as I do on FB and Insta. The metrics *look* lower, but almost as many people actually engage. And yes, speaking of interests and passions comes easier in arts perhaps: we share, we inform, we give clips to experience and that can have value in the community beyond driving sales or tickets.
I suspect that the example of .art and other interest/topic based instances could be a good in between place: If a mid to large sized arts funder/coordinator were to spin up an instance so that theatres and artists can have a presence without having to run their own instances, that might help bridge the gap.
In the comments I read chatter about the different houses you’ve engaged with: what if there was an opera.de instance (orchester.de or just KlassischeMusik.de)
A large enough category with a large enough geography to create internal activity and share the burden of host and moderating but small and local enough to keep a unique character.
@DavidM_yeg That might help! I contacted operabase.com soon after I joined Mastodon, but they have not reacted. I assuem nobody wants to make the first move.
Mina
Renke Meuwese@meganmariehart gamification is indeed a huge part of how the social media usage feedback loop works. LinkedIn and Reddit tell me not just how many people interacted with a contribution, but also how many people saw it. I often find those numbers more disheartening than encouraging (500 people saw a post, 0 commented and 10 responded with an emoji reaction?), but to each their own, it could be a useful feature for people that want to know the reach of their information.
@meuwese Funny enough, our theater has traditional paper posters up on the streets for most shows. There are no metrics available for those. (Though I assume the advertising agency makes up some numbers on request, like “50.000 people pass this poster in the train station every day“ or something.) The advantage of posters is that they advertise not only the specific show, but also the theater's presence in the city!
RowinSpeez@meganmariehart I use hashtags when I want to boost visibility, but I find that you really need momentum from your followers to get real traction. I think the most engagement I've ever seen on here is about 25k likes+boosts+comments on a post.
I think there's also a dampening on metrics where if I boost or quote something, the engagement from me won't necessarily be added to the original post. I'm unsure of this but I've seen boosts from different people with different numbers.
Stevan@meganmariehart I think I see what you're trying to assess, but I suspect that, to those who look to numbers of followers, favs or boosts, the Fediverse may be baffling. They may not be always see engagement as human interaction.
Re hashtags, I used them on a recent trip as I was posting a lot, & wanted to allow folk to filter those posts out if they wished. It also seems some general hashtags, eg birds, mosstodon etc, are of interest to folk who may not be interested in one's other posts
Re hashtags, I used them on a recent trip as I was posting a lot, & wanted to allow folk to filter those posts out if they wished. It also seems some general hashtags, eg birds, mosstodon etc, are of interest to folk who may not be interested in one's other posts
@meganmariehart But look at the engagement your posts have garnered! That includes the reply-guy who you obviously forced, yes, forced, to read your explanatory thread, and whose life is now in ruins. 😃
@withaveeay I’m a meanie! And I’m going to count the holes too!
André Menrath@meganmariehart Many theaters have websites that run via the software WordPress. All they have to do is install a plugin (and to take 10 minutes reviewing the settings) and their website is connected to the Fediverse. Even less work.
mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickupTrue, wordpress addon is the easiest way to join the fediverse.
There are already hosting services that do the technical back end install and maintenance. Owning a domain, with a few clicks anyone can host their own mastodon instance (for fans and paid subscribers), friendica for own complex postings and attention to subscribers, peerTube for video and audio or castoPod for podCasts, to mention a few.
The main detail:
Your domain, your hosting your data and copyright!
@linos Thank you! That’s apparently how Das Opernmagazin got on here, @opernmagazin !
Jens LjungkvistI have been proclaiming the same. Mostly toward our elected members of parliament and those in the government. Leave X and setup your own instance on the Fediverse, because on X you have to login to read what they wrote which is a severe threat to democracy. You don’t need that on Mastodon.
But every organisation should run their own outlet.
Morten@meganmariehart @staatstheaterdarmstadt Even if you don't want actively post you could have your RSS feed go into your Mastodon account. Then you just need to check notifications for comments and toot-toots.
Artem Ignatyev@meganmariehart when you say "theater", I think "backstage" and 'images", and then maybe pixelfed instance in the end, not mastodon?
@zazoobred Pixelfed is not fully usabel for many, myself included, because it does not support text-only posts and the video and audio support is weird. One is not really federated if the majority of the Fediverse is inaccessible, methinks.
@meganmariehart oh, I didn't know that, thanks! (I also never used insta, that probably would give me a clue upfront.. I assume they're similar here)
Lori Olson@meganmariehart @staatstheaterdarmstadt
Honestly I think a theater should have an account on a “local” to their physical location instance. It would give them a better, more focused audience.
Honestly I think a theater should have an account on a “local” to their physical location instance. It would give them a better, more focused audience.
@wndxlori That makes sense in most of the world. However, this might limit the reach, particularly for opera in Europe, where there are so many opera houses! Opera fans travel a lot!
@meganmariehart nothing in the Fediverse is limited in reach. But in that case, I’d recommend an EU focused server
@meganmariehart they do? Interesting!
I must admit I have never been to an opera. Until $smallnum years ago, the entrance would have been prohibitive. I wonder with how much “not dressing up” I can get by in the audience… I already find it major uncomfortable to wear a shirt (black, atop black normal trousers) for our choir concerts… I do actually have an opera house in the city! Might need to look into it.
I’ve listened to quite some in radio streams (I usually have some kind of classical internet radio on in the background), though I have to admit I was never all too fond of… the opera squeking, or so. (I recently found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZT61AsjqwA which places Bel Canto against contemporary Opera style-and-technique, and that is much more to my taste.) But I think I’ll want to try it at least once, to be able to listen (and feel!) it in real life (a recording is merely a bad substitute, this is something I know very well even as a mere amateur choir singer), plus for the theatralic parts. I probably really have to research that (and figure out clothes, I absolutely refuse to wear a tie, for example).
So I thank you for your continued presence here, always reminding me of something I could do some day.
(tbh I have a hard time going to concerts as visitor because I always want to sing/hum/… with… and ideally learn from the pros, though the King’s Singers said they’ll have a Summer School in the UK next year, so I plan for that)
Where opera went wrong
@mirabilos
Please go to the opera! As for attire, wear whatever you like! Seriously, jeans and a t-shirt are perfectly fine. If you’re unsure, wear something that makes you feel festive but comfortable. (Depending on the work, you may be sitting for over 3 hours.) There seem to be far fewer ties these days, basically since trump made them look ridiculous. Depending on where you are seated, some houses can be chilly in winter, so maybe wear a jumper, cardigan or suit jacket you can take off.
Please go to the opera! As for attire, wear whatever you like! Seriously, jeans and a t-shirt are perfectly fine. If you’re unsure, wear something that makes you feel festive but comfortable. (Depending on the work, you may be sitting for over 3 hours.) There seem to be far fewer ties these days, basically since trump made them look ridiculous. Depending on where you are seated, some houses can be chilly in winter, so maybe wear a jumper, cardigan or suit jacket you can take off.
@meganmariehart ok, I’ll plan this (for after acute hazel/birch pollen season). Temperature should do, I went to where the choir sang for christmas in shorts… but I can do a little more festive but comfortable. Thanks!
Iron Bug@meganmariehart @mirabilos some people have never been to opera and in our theater in winter it's deadly cold. and some women don't know this, they had seen festive people in theaters on TV and put on their best, wearing evening gowns. and then turn blue and frozen before the end of the first act.
I always wear a good warm and cozy clothes if I go to opera. sitting 3-4 hours in a draughty and chilly place is a serious test and to enjoy music I need to feel comfortable, first of all.
I always wear a good warm and cozy clothes if I go to opera. sitting 3-4 hours in a draughty and chilly place is a serious test and to enjoy music I need to feel comfortable, first of all.
Shoe Bill@wndxlori @meganmariehart @staatstheaterdarmstadt
Likewise commercial radio stations. They're already highly localized anyway. Tbf, almost all of them have a website, but still; local social media would only benefit them.
@meganmariehart @staatstheaterdarmstadt I have seen multiple people post about having tiny Mastodon follower bases, but getting better engagement and sales than on the legacy corporate social media where they sometimes have huge audiences.
Kevin Neely 
@staatstheaterdarmstadt @meganmariehart
What a cool experiment!
Assuming the theater posts to other social sites, a minimal thing they could do would be to setup #Buffer or something similar, allowing simultaneous posting across multiple sites. Other than the setup, there'd be no additional effort to begin reaching Mastodon.
I'd love to figure out a way to get more small businesses to do that, since I don't use Meta products and miss out a lot on local promotions and specials.
David Bridger has moved@meganmariehart I'm a novelist. I enjoy Mastodon as a water cooler experience with people in my various communities, with hastags being useful. Not interested in trying to flog my books here, or seeing any others who do so.
@DavidBridger I like that! Do you have readers who interact with you on Mastodon? I’m not trying to sell anything either. I see my posts about upcoming performances as public announcements and try to make them informative: what, when, where, who. But then again, I enjoy the luxury of not having to sell tickets. I get the same fee whether 50 or 5000 people come. (Although I prefer the latter! 
)
)@meganmariehart I do have some readers who talk with me here, although those who remained on Facebook when I left there were a far bigger group. I regretted my loss of contact with them (apart from those who've become my friends over the years so we've kept in touch) but I couldn't stay on that corrupted platform. I have big respect for your profession.