Pete Prodoehl š
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 ā¦ 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. Itās possible that brands and āinfluencerā-type people arenāt getting the kick theyāre used to from the Fediverse because there are no metrics showing how many people have seen a post. Perhaps itās different with your own instance ā I donāt know!
2/7
2/7
For the sake of argument, letās 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 2ā5% of music sales,
3/7
3/7
ā¦ 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 couldnāt care less!) Brands and āInfluencerā-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 āfeelingā dosenāt help when trying to convince people to join. Or to get active. My current theater @staatstheaterdarmstadt is on here since 2022 ā 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 canāt be more work than FB and IG.
5/7
5/7
All theaters have websites. Iām 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 canāt be that hard. Perhaps itās even possible to run it as an outlet only, then they wouldnāt 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 ā¦
6/7
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ā¦ 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
Patrick Georgi@meganmariehart You're posting links to the shows, and you seem to be reasonably well connected on the Fediverse - you could pick one to leave out (together with the theatre's media team) and they could check their analysis tools to see how much of a dent that makes to website traffic.
@patrick Yeah. That would have been the way to do it if I was smart. 
Oh well, what's done is done. Thanks! šø
Oh well, what's done is done. Thanks! šø@meganmariehart All good! :-)
I like that you're thinking about these matters and I appreciate your presence here. Nice insights, and good advertising (though I'm still more likely to end up in the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, even though it's a longer distance. Old habits etc etc)
I like that you're thinking about these matters and I appreciate your presence here. Nice insights, and good advertising (though I'm still more likely to end up in the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, even though it's a longer distance. Old habits etc etc)
@patrick I worked in Wiesbaden, but have not yet made my house debut there. I stepped in as Elsa for Lohengrin rehearsals and didnāt think to negotiate getting a performance as well. I should have, that was a rookie mistake. Itās a beautiful house!
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, itās possible to retrieve the number of times or number of users that have viewed the post directly on that instance.
But you donāt see the number of views on the other instances the post has reached.
@ahltorp Thank you!!
schuh
@sonjaschuh01 Thank you so much! Iāll give this to someone whoās good with math and computers. I have a hunch it could be really helpful. (Iām 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 everyoneās follower lists (they can be set to be not shown to others)
KirstyI run a corporate page on other socials because I can advertise.
I just donāt know how many people (I think a number approaching zero) would follow an Australian shed and cladding company.
Jens FinkhƤuser@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 youāve 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.
Vsevolod Popov@meganmariehart I never use hashtags on Mastodon since I forgot that they were used in Twitter. They are not used in Telegram. In case of Russian mastodon there are 2 bots that boost your posts if they are written in russian. I have no idea how they are boosted if they are written in English and how, let's say, a person would find somebody to follow in Mastodon if he only registered and wants to find something to read and interact with.
@Sevapopov @meganmariehart I use hashtags because I and others follow them to find specific content. Some people block things like the name of the president to avoid seeing it. They are my favorite tool.
Wayne Werner@farbel @Sevapopov @meganmariehart you may already be aware, but hashtags are the primary vehicle for searching on Fedi, thus, the primary mechanism for broadcasting topical content.
They also are "the algorithm" - there's nothing finding toots with engagement or funding and putting them in front of your eyes. Hashtags are it... And I honestly think that's a good thing, though I'd like better tools for consuming them.
Patrick O'Beirne@Sevapopov @meganmariehart
AFAIK people can opt out of allowing full-text search of their posts. If so, you can only find people talking about opera if they use a hashtag #opera.
AFAIK people can opt out of allowing full-text search of their posts. If so, you can only find people talking about opera if they use a hashtag #opera.
@PatrickOBeirne @meganmariehart Thank you for all your explanations! It is great that hashtags are used in Mastodon as much as they were in Twitter, I already forgot how it was since I didn't use Twitter for ages and in Telegram hashtags are used to categorize things. One person that is new to Mastodon asked me what I can recommend to do if they don't know who to follow on new account, what to start with. I actually don't remember what I did since it was 6 years ago and when I returned 2 weeks ago I already had some accounts I follow. They use native Mastodon app, I don't know what they could do if they used FastSM. Maybe there are some recommendations or something like that for those that don't have any followings? Like list of posts or whatever?
@Sevapopov @meganmariehart
Follow @FediTips
I just use the web interface. In my settings I entered various search terms I was interested in so I see them in my feed. Use US and British spelling eg #humor #humour
Iron Bug@Sevapopov @meganmariehart @PatrickOBeirne no, you can't find people that go to opera and like opera by tag "opera". you will probably find fans of some proprietary browser instead. this is an example of totally litter tag.and among that litter you barely can find information about real opera theaters and so on.
GeePawHill@meganmariehart Swear to god, hashtags mostly just annoy me. I follow people. They boost people. I pick and choose from their boosteds.
MetalBrawler@GeePawHill @meganmariehart I follow a couple of tags. It's convenient if you're interested in the topic, not the person.
iwein@GeePawHill super convenient for negative filtering though. Some super nice folks out here also post stuff I shouldn't look at. If it's tagged, my filter protects our friendship, and that's worth it to me.
@iwein @meganmariehart @metalbrawler Yes. I play Oxygen Not Included, and I post threads about my play. I do add the tag, # oxygennotincluded, so my followers can filter it.
UnitedWeStandšŖšŗš»š«@GeePawHill @meganmariehart
But for some IT IS easy to follow certain Hashtags they are interested in.
But for some IT IS easy to follow certain Hashtags they are interested in.
Petra van Cronenburg@GeePawHill I discovered the most interesting people by subscribing to hashtags. I would never have found specialists for lichens by boosts of people only. It's great if you are interested in more nerdy issues.
Amateur Human@meganmariehart I saw this and I don't follow you
everton137
Goodlucksil@meganmariehart Very first post on my "trending" feed, so quite popular, E guess.
@Goodlucksil Isnāt that wild? I did NOT expect that. But thatās perfect for my purpose. Iāve edited the post to explain why I made this request. Thank you!
leberschnitzel@meganmariehart godspeed
@meganmariehart If you don't add hashtags, you miss the audience that follows a particular hashtag. Those people are potential new subscribers.
@metalbrawler I wanted to test the potential reach of a post without hashtags, basically just for the sake of discussion. My home theater has a Mastodon account since 2022 but never posted anything! Perhaps I can convince them to get active if I can show them a posts potential, and maybe other theaters and artists will join. Fingers crossed!š¤
Thank you!
Thank you!
@metalbrawler @meganmariehart šŖš¤š
Marc Eisele@meganmariehart @metalbrawler The purpose of hashtags is to tag posts on a specific topic so that someone can find themāoutside of the timeline, of course. I use both, depending on what I want to see.
Eowyn@metalbrawler @meganmariehart they should post their program tagging with city name, theater and other relevant tags
@metalbrawler @meganmariehart maybe mirror RSS of their website
Itās harder to abuse hashtags here, because if you spam hashtags people care about they will just block you without a second thoughtā¦ but that makes the right hashtags super valuable because you can quickly engage with your specific community.
George Saich
š„ Eveline Sulman š³š±šŖšŗšŗš¦@meganmariehart saw you. I mostly forget to use hashtags. I follow a few.
AvacadoAvengerI saw it and gave it a star. Reach is hard to quantify.
@AvacadoAvenger I figured as much. I'm just trying to gauge the size of the ballpark. Thank you!
Pat@meganmariehart @AvacadoAvenger nor is it easy to qualify. Does the reader read the entire post, or just the first few words? Do they give it some thought, or dismiss it as irrelevant/uninteresting? Is the reader mindlessly scrolling, partially or fully engaged?
MegatronicThronBanks