Mastodon: what is this social media channel really?

Posted on November 13, 2022 by Pam Sahota

Twitter gets bought, and a new social network comes popping up. But what is Mastodon really about, you ask?

According to their site, they’re meant to be a social channel for the people, and not one to be taken over and meant for profit. But don’t all social channels start out that way?

In the meantime, there is some intrigue, especially for those flocking from Twitter to the new Mastodon. But what are the perks and why is it worth trying out?

Here are a few things to know:

What can you do: Users can post, follow, like and repost. This includes the sharing of multi-media.

What is the main difference: According to economic times, “it’s a federation of independently operated, interconnected servers. Mastodon servers are based on open-source software developed by German nonprofit Mastodon gGmbH.” But what does that mean? Economic times summarized it as “each server is governed by rules set by the people who operate it. If you think of the fediverse as a university, each Mastodon server is like a dorm.” You can move through dorms, switch dorms, or leave completely. It’s up to you to determine which fits your behavior and preferences, and it’s up to the university who controls the dorm to police it (especially for trolls and harassment).

What brands exist there? So far I’ve seen many publications taking a stand within the “dorms” and I’ve followed a few myself to get news from them within the new platform. Right now I’m in discovery mode and still seeing what I like and dislike of the channel. What I’ve noticed quickly is that it’s quite new and not many of the folks I typically interact with are easy to find – maybe because of the “dorm” atmosphere and figuring out which server to join. This may get easier with time as people may advertise where to go to find them, which will probably shortly be followed by influencers and fees.

The today: Right now, anyone can set up a server. But if that server disappears so could your content within it. There is a lot of experimentation and learning going on right now. But think about it this way, isn’t that always the case with a new social channel? And isn’t there always risk?

The question is, are you willing to dive in and check it out for yourself?

image source: mastodon

Digital Marketers Rejoice: Instagram Multi-user Testing and What it Means

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Pam Sahota

Since brands began their “invasion” (we all know consumers felt this way at times) of Instagram, digital marketers have been feeling the pain. There is no way to post seamlessly through the Instagram platform for multiple accounts. It’s led many down the path of testing third party apps, and many particularly into frustration. And typically both.

Now with the announcement of android multi-user beta testing in play, it could be a whole new playing field. What does this mean?

For brands and digital marketers:

Ease of handling multiple accounts. This doesn’t just mean personal and professional (but it does for many of us). It also means for agency and multi-brand folks, the ability to jump from one product line to the next without having to log out.
Assuming this allows for multi-login alerts at the same time, it would provide marketers with easier listening and in turn engagement with the target market.
Saving hashtags, because when you logout, you lose the ability to auto-fill your most recently used hashtags.
Less money spent on third party tools for something a native tool should allow for

For consumers:

Faster response by brands for questions, contests, and engagement with UGC content
Potential to be “seen” by a brand as a significant / loyal consumer sooner
More content they want to see

But for now we wait. We wait for the beta test to expand to iPhone and to all Instagram users (rather than just beta testers). We wait for Instagram to give us what we’ve been hoping for … for far too long.

Until then.

This post was originally written for Socialnomics.

Your Brands Needs a Social Strategy

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Pam Sahota

Social media still seems new to some brands, but it’s not a new part of marketing. There are people hired for brands to run global social departments in order to stay competitive within the space and stay fresh and engaging with their customer base.

With startups, a social media strategy is an important piece to the overall marketing strategy.Sometimes with little time and little resources, we jump on social channels and run with haste, rather than with quality and thought-through content. Let’s change that.

Social media is:

Visual- Important for fashion brands to be able to show off their assets.
Fast- You can get sneak peeks and new off the shelf products in front of them right away.
A connective tissue- It allows you to connect to consumers in a way that no paper magazine ad could.

Great things for a startup who needs to make its presence known, and fast. But with the right strategy, there’s so much more you can do.

Gain Customer knowledge- You’ll get to see what your customers like and don’t like, what types of content they prefer, and where they prefer to engage with you.
Have faster customer service- It allows you to respond faster to their concerns and excitement.
Be competitive- It allows you to stay on top of your most fierce competition by listening and keeping a close eye.
Make it personal- It allows your startup and brand to connect to consumers on a personal level through responding in real time, answering questions, praising them for being awesome.
Build Relationships- And in turn allows you to build an army of advocates who will speak on your behalf.

These are just some of the reasons why you need to think strategically about your social content and not just post and be on social media because you know you should be.

You need to think through your target market, where they play on social, and what content is right for them (and your brand). We’ll talk about that in detail in our next article.

This post was originally written for Startup Fashion.

When NOT to jump onto a new social channel

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Pam Sahota

The marketing swimming pool has many deep ends, a lot of which you can’t always see if there is a bottom to touch. With a new app or social channel coming out every day, week, and month, it’s hard to know when to leap and when to stay in the shallow end.

While it’s great to be an early adopter, sometimes it’s best to chill and observe; see how and if other brands are using the platform and then decide if it’s worth exploring.

Here are four times when you should indeed stay away from the deep end and let others cannonball first:

When the user interface is too much effort

For example, when Ello was first released, it was not user friendly. It was black and white and not appealing to use (like apps such as Instagram). It is fun to explore as a user, but as a brand it is still fairly uncharted territory outside of some journalistic brands like WSJ.

When the platform doesn’t seem to have captured your target audience

For example, your audience may not care to be on meerkat, but it may embrace Periscope due to so many others using it already. Mashable uses it constantly for its tech talks, while others use it for showing insider and live events. Try to do a little research to see if your target market is actually using the platform before you jump in and devote time to it.

When the resources to make it happen would be at the cost of marketing campaigns that are already working for your brand

Contrary to what some may think, every time you add a new platform to your social media mix, you’re draining more resources, both financial, creative, and time related. For example, creating video content takes time to plan, executive, edit, and distribute. It takes planning and content strategy upfront.

When it makes sense to learn from the ones who do it wrong/right first. And jump in later with a better strategy.

For example, when all the kids ran over to snapchat to see what the buzz was. The buzz was good.

Still unsure and curious?

Try using the platform on your personal handle/username first. Test it out to see how it works and why people would be curious about it. Put on your consumer hat and see if you would be interested in hearing from a brand through this new app or channel. If yes, give it a whirl (but not at the expense of things that are already working for you).

Lastly, keep your life raft nearby. Sometimes you just need to jump out after testing the waters.

This post was originally written for startup fashion.