Renata 🇨🇦🐈Newsflash: boring white guy thinks fedi is bad because people here are not interested in his AI content
Anyway, Happy First Contact Day everyone.
I don’t even TRY (not my goal in life, I use mastodon for fun) and never had a problem with “engagement”
I have said this before:
A lot of journalists, influencers, etc have a problem with fedi because they don’t bother understanding the format
They’re used to platforms that work like this:
- share hot take
- receive likes
The fedi works differently:
- Engage with the community
- Connect with like minded folks regularly so they see you as a peer
- Eventually share your hot take
- Get responses
- Interact
And there you have it. That’s how you make friends instead of just followers.
Gaëtan Perrault@renata I think this goes both ways though. Journalists and influencers are inherently on these platforms to generate some form of monetization.
Typically this is some form of advertising revenue share. Otherwise they have to use this platform as marketing. Which is also really just advertising.
Doing those things well requires algorithmic control and reliable metrics. Both things which this fediverse platform doesn't support.
The lack of those things makes this a kind of useless platform for influencers and journalists. Not only do they have to do community engagement, but they can't use those numbers for advances on their next book.
You can do Cory Doctorow numbers, but you can't do Kim Kardashian numbers.
We could say some of those people have problems here, but I think it's more accurate to say that this place just isn't really for them.
@gatesvp They were on Twitter before those things were available so I wonder why it it’s only a requirement now, and why they can’t use the fedi as an extra outlet - many of us aren’t asking them to abandon everything else, just to diversify?
(But no matter the reasoning I judge people who publish on pedo platform)
@renata totally agreed that they can be judged for publishing on Twitter.
But if they were on Twitter before the rise of ads, they also existed in a different environment. If you were a journalist in 2010, your core revenue came from the website / publication. Twitter was a marketing channel, not your revenue base. YouTube was a supplement, but not your core income.
But if you're a journalist today, most people have ad blockers and nobody is subscribing. Your website isn't paying your bills. So you suddenly depend on Substack and YouTube and Instagram for revenue sources. Your sponsors need externally validated view counts, they need reach numbers, and they're the ones paying the bills.
I wonder why it's a requirement now...
It's all the stuff above. Unless you have an independent funding source, you cannot really execute on the functions of an influencer using this platform. This platform won't help you pay your journalist bills. 🤷🏻♂️
PS: I'm obviously okay with this setup, that's part of why I'm here. 🎉
But I also understand a lot of people who aren't here, because this place is just not for them. 🤷🏻♂️