All About Community: Newsmast 3.1.0
Newsmast introduces a string of new features, perfect for growing a community online.
There is a vast array of Mastodon clients and Fediverse enabled social platforms - many of which have their own app.
Each one serves a certain type of audience. Mammoth captures the sleek iOS feel, IceCubes has a funky colourful take, OpenVibe combines minimalism with connection, and there's many many more. So, it's pretty easy to find something that suits you.
Newsmast, by The Newsmast Foundation has quite a different feel to these other apps. It goes out of the way to change the traditional layout that nearly all the other apps have in common and focuses on Communities - places of topical knowledge.
Is it as slick as some of the more minimalist options? I don't think so. But the latest update, 3.1.0, comes packed with features unique to Newsmast that really excite me (I'm not just saying that because I work for the Foundation!).
And that's what I want to talk about - Newsmast's new post features from the perspective of someone who wants to grow their social presence & their online community.
In-App Scheduling
For me, the most exciting feature in this release is the ability to schedule posts in the post-builder.
That means you can write your post, choose a time, and leave it alone - knowing at at the time you chose, the post will go out.
This fixes one of the biggest issues I've encountered on Mastodon, Newsmast, and any platform with a chronological timeline - the inability to communicate with people outside of your timezone.
I'm based in the UK but majority of the people I interact with on Mastodon are based in the US, the west coast of the US. In the summer, that's eight hours time difference!
It no wonder then that Australians in this space are struggling to get reach, like the amazing Australian Geographic who are committed to decentralised social media despite their tiny audience when compared to the 1 million followers they have on TikTok. You can follow them on the Fediverse at @ausgeo@newsmast.social.
So will scheduling help? Without a doubt.
The simplest but most often overlooked part of building your audience is simply posting when they're online. Not when you have time, not when you feel like it, but when people are actually there to listen. If you find out the best time to post, then you can set it all up without worrying.
This also means you can line up a number of posts, to keep content regular, and only check in to engage with your community. If you have to go and post manually every time, you'll definitely miss some posts and you'll get sucked into the endless scroll.
Draft Posts
One thing I loved on Twitter was the ability to draft my posts. Mostly because I think I'm hilarious, so I'd save a Tweet there, find it a few months later, and then make myself laugh.
Now I can do that on Newsmast too!
But seriously, having the ability to store posts you're not quite ready to make is so freeing. It gives you the chance to think over how you're going to say things, as well as giving you content for a later date.
Post Visibility Settings
This isn't unique to Newsmast, it's actually one of the things I first really liked about Mastodon - the ability to choose who your post reaches.
You can choose to show your post on the timeline, or keep it quiet (great for replies), to post to only your friends, or post so only the person mentioned can see it - something similar to a DM.
This can be utilised with ease by anyone wanting to grow a community on the Fediverse, with posts unique to those who you've chosen and brought into your circle. In particular, helping people who don't want their posts to be seen by strangers share things that matter to them in their community.
Community
In reality, all of these new features I've highlighted are about the same thing - community.
Community is crucial as you build your social presence as those are the people who are going to be supporting you.
I'm not saying everyone should post simply for the benefit of others! If you're posting about something online, it should make you feel something. But to grow your platform, it should also make others feel something - that's community.