Is anyone using Mastodon as their primary social media and is it working for you?

[castaway@fosstodon.org]

@LianaBrooks yes and yes

[rupertreynolds@hachyderm.io]

@LianaBrooks Yes, me :-)

I find it takes more time to build connections the Mastodon way, but those connections give me a hugely better signal-to-noise ratio, close to 100%. I gave up on the others one-by-one as they became toxic.

[adaraastin@supervolcano.angryshark.eu]

@LianaBrooks That said, being here absolutely does not sell my audiobooks (I'm a narrator, or rather a former narrator at this point), and after over two years of futile promotions, I now put my energy into other projects (and occasionally post a book promo if the spirit moves me, but with zero expectations of making sales happen).

Changes in my day job + leaving corporate social media for 100% Fedi + my authors doing zero promotions on their back catalogues + AI coming after the voice work industry = I am no longer taking new voice work contracts & rarely promote audiobooks, because the ROI isn't there on Fedi for the time I put.

It is what it is, as the kids say.

[Note: I am not looking for a pep talk, nor for unsolicited advice. This is not an attitude problem (lol), it is a collapsing industry problem. I have cut my losses and moved on, which is a thoroughly considered and prudent business/career/financial move, I assure you.]

Meanwhile, there are also a handful of new audiobook listeners who I have connected with on Fedi, and I am deeply grateful to each and every one of them (/you). The scale just isn't there to make financial sense. So it goes.

But socially? I love it here. I am very, very glad to be on Mastodon / in the Fediverse.

[membrana@bolha.one]

@LianaBrooks yes,works very well.

Small community, very tightly knit. People are generally very kind and genuine. Interactions are meaningful and create bonds. Manageable amount of updates.

Apart from that I use chat platforms to connect with close friends.

I have an Instagram account to reach out to people whom I know are in there when I need to, otherwise I would completely sever all contact bridges with lots and lots of contacts. But I don't browse or post at all.

Linkedin out of NECESSITY unfortunately 💀

[jez@mapstodon.space]

@LianaBrooks Yes. It feels like the early days of Twitter: I can disagree with someone without it becoming a big deal; I can tell everyone good/bad news without it feeling like humble-bragging; I learn stuff from other people; I can feel the pulse of what's happening; I'm away from techbros; there are people here from outside of my normal circle and that makes me more accepting.

[pthane@toot.wales]

@LianaBrooks
It's my only social media and it's fine. None of my real life friends and family* are on it but I interact with makers and techies of all kinds.
* I suspect my brother might be lurking on Blue sky and see my posts via Bridgy. Are you there bro?

[julia@soc.pupgirl.link]

@LianaBrooks yes

[mutineer@social.coop]

Yes and yes. Remember too that you can use forum platdorms, with Discourse or similar, so that you can collectively own your content or blog. These platforms can selectively federate and share stuff more widely. For the rest of us on here I think we need to think more about tipping or paying for products or services we genuinely value, and not expect creators to be paid by the ad / algorithm shit. We get what we deserve in the long run.

[nux@fosstodon.org]

@LianaBrooks Yes, since roughly 6 months.

[darkedge@mastodon.me.uk]

@LianaBrooks yes and yes, it's great

[aspiringluddite@medievalist.masto.host]

@LianaBrooks

Yep, and works just fine ...

[afb@mastodonapp.uk]

@LianaBrooks Yup! I'm finding a lot of interesting people doing cool stuff, and I get a bit of blog traffic off posting here. It's also simply a nicer place to be than most of the other sites, in my experience.

[wav3ydave@mas.to]

@LianaBrooks yes, also yes. takes a bit more legwork to get it going but a much better experience overall

[fandasin@social.linux.pizza]

@LianaBrooks

I use it as ONLY social media and it is working more then well.😍

[nicksworld@mastodon.stickbear.me]

@ShaulaEvans @LianaBrooks Yes. Mastodon is my main social media platform and I like it.

[kitten_tech@fosstodon.org]

@LianaBrooks yes, yes

[journeysinfilm@hcommons.social]

@LianaBrooks Our social media presence is divided equally between Mastodon, Instagram and LinkedIn. So not solo primary (poly primary?) but an important part of our online outreach.

We love it here! We have hands down our best engagement on Mastodon, no question.

Our primary audiences are educators (classroom / homeschool / community / other contexts) and filmmakers, which are communities that exist on Fedi but aren't as large or well-defined as legacy corporate media.

We have the impression that we connect with a more international audience and more people in higher ed here than elsewhere. (Yay!)

We're a non-profit that gives away our teaching resources for free. Our most important metric (that we report to our board, our funders and our filmmakers) is downloads. Mastodon does not drive a huge number of downloads at this time, but the numbers have grown significantly since we first joined. (Yay!)

We're really happy to be here and we are grateful for the support we receive.

[glittercleric@corteximplant.com]

@LianaBrooks I was part of the great Twitter exodus and haven't really used any other social media besides Fedi ever since. I do have a Tumblr account still, but only reblog stuff there without engaging otherwise. Fedi is working really well for me, I have a lot more interactions here than anywhere else, most of which are very positive.

The only negative things about Fedi for me are that there's very few Black and other PoC users, and it overall leans very tech-y.

[nopatience@swecyb.com]

@LianaBrooks I wanted to add a thought to this.

Mastodon requires of you an intentional use of social media. You need to curate your timeline(s) through your follows and lists. There are pros and cons with having a none algorithmically dominated timeline.

If things "go viral" it's because PEOPLE made it so. That's a powerful concept. Virality is a function of ... people liking it.

Mastodon has also announced that they will focus extensively in the coming 3 to 6 month period on improving discoverability and "timeline" management through starter packs (collections) etc.

Mastodon works, but I think the more important observation is that Mastodon integrates into a bigger whole where humans are the center pieces, not the tech.

[musevg@23.social]

@LianaBrooks
Yes and yes (mostly).

I had like a ton of different subreddit subscriptions back in the day, and I don't get all my interests covered to the same extent here (or in Lemmy). But I'm very fine with Mastodon/Fediverse nevertheless.