Over the weekend, I joined two more social media sites – Mastodon and Facebook. After Twitter went strange and quiet – unfortunately coinciding with my book launch! – I thought it would be a good idea to branch out, so that I’m not relying on Twitter for most of my promotion.
Everyone was suddenly talking about Mastodon. Some have joined as an insurance policy in case Twitter goes kaput, while many others are actively building networks on there. While I’m not leaving Twitter, I’m finding Mastodon quite interesting. It’s not really the same kind of site, although it does have the option to ‘boost’ posts (so, a re-Tweet) and is very much about hashtags. I think it has quite a friendly, early-internet feel, although that’ll probably lessen as more people join. I don’t pretend to understand how it all works but at the moment it’s very easy to gain followers based on your interests. You can also potentially connect with people who, for one reason or another, you haven’t met on other platforms, even if you’re part of the same communities. It can sometimes be slow and is not very intuitive, but I like the sort of frontier spirit.
Writers are often advised to join Facebook so they can have an official author page. Excited to have another outlet for my blog posts and writing promotion, I did so. However, I have had several problems already. Firstly, they banned me from ‘liking’ anything for no apparent reason and then extended the ban. All I had done was follow some other writers and like a few posts. Secondly, I wasn’t able to see a list of all my followers, so I wasn’t able to follow them back. Thirdly, I downloaded the app and it didn’t work properly so I uninstalled it. Finally, I couldn’t access the site at all and was then informed the account had been suspended as it apparently didn’t follow their community standards. I apologise to everyone I’ve been telling about my new author page, as you might not be able to follow or see my posts at the moment. It’s rather a knock to my confidence so early on. I clicked the option to disagree with their decision, the alternative being to do nothing and be permanently suspended. It’s supposed to be resolved in a day. Compared to the other social media I’m on, it seems pretty unfriendly so far and a hassle I could do without, but I want to make it work.
Final edit: My Facebook account was suspended yet again after a few days of being back in operation. I decided that it was too much of a headache, so I’m not on there any more.
Are you on any social media? How do you find it?
Please visit my bio link to see all my social links in one handy place.
I deleted all my social media a while ago, but the rise of mastodon has interested me because it’s open source
I’m very intrigued to find out what will happen to the platform as more people join. Probably if I didn’t have books and the blog to promote I wouldn’t have social media but it has become a necessity for me.
I’m liking IG most of all social media but it takes so much time. Twitter is ok – I’m pretty ambivalent about it. Facebook – I only have an account because it’s owned by the same people as IG, so it kept making Tessa Talks Books an account whether I wanted it or not. 😂🤣😂. I don’t do any others.
I still like Twitter the best but then it was the first one I joined and I’ve built up a good network over 4 years! I don’t spend as much time on IG but I’m trying to interact more on there. It’s harder to get followers on there I think unless you have the most amazing pictures. LOL it seems that Meta are determined that you have an account!
I attempted years ago to set up a page for my blog on Facebook, and failed totally to ever get it to work. I assumed it was me, though I’m not usually technically challenged to any great extent, but you’ve made me think it must be Facebook. Good luck – I hope you manage to get it sorted. I must say that my younger friends tell me Facebook is dead – they use Instagram for promotion. As for Twitter, my finger is hovering over the delete button but I haven’t decided whether to press it yet…
Thanks – although they didn’t email me to let me know, I find that I’m back on there now. It seems that FB is still the number one platform for the older generations while the younger ones prefer IG or the snappier ones which are mainly videos! I get a lot of value from Twitter so I won’t be leaving unless everyone else does.
Right, now I’m officially the only person in the world who isn’t on Facebook. And I haven’t even heard of Mastodon…
I only heard of Mastodon when my Twitter friends were saying they had joined! Hopefully both platforms will be fun and good for my ‘brand’ 😀
Wishing you the best of luck with both platforms 🙂
The Mastadon hype blew over me. I think people panic a lot and moved there when they thought Eloon Musk’s twitter would somehow make everyone disappear without a blue tick or something. I’m not there yet but will keep the site in mind for the future. as for facebook i’m no longer there after not enjoying my time there a few years ago. I created a page for my strawberry blog when I started it and then logged back into the account only to find it was suspended and they demanded I show them my passprot to prove I was who I was which I thought was too much hassle so just left it, lol. Got suspended on twitter too on a different account when they presented a whole list of ppl I might like to follow (which I did follow about 20 of them) and then they imediately banned me for suspicious activity. Bots!🤪😂😂
Social media can be a nightmare, it seems essential now for making connections etc but it’s stressful too. After all the malarkey I posted about here, I then got suspended from any activity again… almost seems not worth it! I don’t know how anyone can hope to build a platform when they can’t interact with people without FB thinking it’s suspicious! Mastodon couldn’t be more different, it’s really fun at the moment to find new people and those I already knew from other platforms.
I’m curious about mastodon, I have a twitter account but don’t use it much. I deactivated my Facebook account on NYE 2018, never regretted it, it was such a time sink and I had issues with the algorithm and privacy concerns. I’m still on instagram, it’s probably my favourite social network these days, I love the photos and stories but I’m not interested in reels unfortunately.
I am still enjoying Mastodon, it takes a little getting used to how to follow people etc. It depends what you want to use it for, if you are happy with the media you already use then maybe not worth it. I like IG but find it difficult to use sometimes and I don’t watch videos at all yet it’s always pushing them on me!