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Almost no one cares if your site is not on social media

notes.ghed.in

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Re: Almost no one cares if your site is not on social media

#21

Post by Retric »

criddell wrote: post #19
sph wrote: post #12

Of course not. Social media is shouting at the void at best, but usual self-contained rage bait. People open Twitter/Mastodon to doomscroll and post their thoughts, and could not care less about linked content. I have seen the same exact pattern with trying to mention my latest blog posts on Mastodon or other social media: no one cares. I had much more engagement posting on Linkedin, though one would believe that wit…

> Social media is shouting at the void at best At best, social media is an additional way of keeping in touch with people you know and care about.

For a very loose definition of keep in touch with.

I’ve found it easier to stay connected after dropping social media, but I value direct communication far more than status updates. Time spent on social media is time not spent directly talking to someone, and it’s really tempting to send a message rather than call.

Re: Almost no one cares if your site is not on social media

#22

Post by 0ckpuppet »

ghaff wrote: post #13
rpgbr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP here. I dropped an X/Twittter account in the end of 2022 with ~17k followers and… really, nothing changed. Since then, it’s safe to assume that things worsened there and everywhere. Google is the only traffic referrer that still matters. See: https://sparktoro.com/blog/who-sends-traffic-on-the-web-and-...

LinkedIn still matters quite a bit for commercial/professional stuff. X still matters some. But anecdotally, X is far less relevant and used in my circles post-Musk. (And Mastodon hasn't replaced it for most people.) I think Musk was the impetus for a lot of people to dial down their social media use.

honest question, does that say more about your circles or about X?

Re: Almost no one cares if your site is not on social media

#23

Post by rightbyte »

esrauch wrote: post #11
rpgbr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP here. I dropped an X/Twittter account in the end of 2022 with ~17k followers and… really, nothing changed. Since then, it’s safe to assume that things worsened there and everywhere. Google is the only traffic referrer that still matters. See: https://sparktoro.com/blog/who-sends-traffic-on-the-web-and-...

If you have 17k followers how many actual eyeballs see your posts? I guess it largely depends on how "stale" the account followers are (= how many are still active), but I have to guess it's below 1k? Maybe even below 100? Then the math for conversion rate on link clicks after that, it seems like you might be talking about on the order of ten hits for 17k followers?

I had Wikileaks/Assange link to an article I wrote on Twitter. The clickthrough rate was like 500 readers or something. Quite underwelming.

Re: Almost no one cares if your site is not on social media

#25

Post by loloquwowndueo »

AlexandrB wrote: post #17
burrish wrote: post #10

Here something funny about X/Twitter, if you dare post a link in your main tweet, this will significantly decrease the reach of this one. (you have to post it in the comments) Because X/Twitter want people to stay in their platform, link outside X isn't great for them.

This is one of those post-acquisition changes that made Twitter a lot less useful. I don't really get the logic, Twitter is optimized for a certain kind of content - short text - and anything longer needs to go on another platform. Instead of embracing that the current ownership wants to compete with TikTok and Youtube and Instagram and substack at the same time.

And anything longer needs to be posted as a screenshot of the text.

There fixed that for you.

Re: Almost no one cares if your site is not on social media

#26

Post by tambourine_man »

> Like any authoritarian entity, Google…

Let's all calm down a little bit. I'm not a fan of last-decade's Google, but it is just a company and the open web still exists. And always will. It's relevance may shrink, but maybe it was always supposed to be a niche thing all along.

I have mourned the rise of social media and enshitification of Google, but perhaps the outcome is not as bleak. Technically inclined people self hosting their blogs and keeping their web-rings, while the rest of the world mindlessly scrolls Instagram. I'm happy to help anyone that wants to join Mastodon or set up a blog, but I'm tired of trying to convince them they should.

Re: Almost no one cares if your site is not on social media

#28

Post by weinzierl »

moravak1984 wrote: post #3

I'd argue that Mastodon and Telegram hardly count as social media (and 450 contacts on WhatsApp... come on) If someone with a site on X/WhatsApp/Instagram/FB repeats the experiment, then we might see something interesting.

If you shout into a void on Mastodon or a loud crowded space on X where no one hears you makes hardly a difference for almost everyone.

Re: Almost no one cares if your site is not on social media

#30

Post by guhcampos »

I have the sense social media is really bad for written content in particular. It's likely the best broadcasting mechanism for YouTube channels, shops, some types of services.

But the audience in social media in its majority is looking for quick dopamine pills, not long form articles, so conversion on those is really really low.

I'm a programmer, not a marketer though, so take this with a grain of salt and maybe some chili pepper too.

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