Influencing Influencers
How do you change the way the professionals do social media?
Social media is a job. That is not up for debate. It's a complicated mix of marketing, design, and PR - surprisingly few people can do it.
But what do you do when you want to influence these people? And I don't just mean the influencers who get free trips to Disneyland. I mean the social media managers and content teams who can, effectively, control trends on the internet.
A system of red tape
Realistically, no matter what the organisations branded account is saying, the person typing away doesn't call the shots on what is said and posted on the social channels.
Sure, they might get creative freedom, but at the end of the day there are obligations they must stick to and things they can't decide. Social direction is a group decision and always there to drive the message of a brand.
But when did the people making these decisions get scared of something new? Something which, for them, is really a no brainer - to join the Fediverse and wider Social Web.
They hold back, reviewing and waiting for others to make the move first.
The 'brand voice'
The rise in the 'brand voice' - love it or hate it - is mostly thanks to young people. People who grew up fed up of boring brands trying to advertise a product.
It came from growing up online and the internet being the place to talk to your friends. Young people realised that these brands need to become our 'friends' to get people engaged in their messaging.
And it happened, I'm not sure who did it first, but Duolingo always springs to mind. They let a young social media manager take control and it worked. Now everyone is following suit.
Sunil Bajaj /
Federation will, on paper, be a much quieter affair than Gen Z marketing tactics but Gen Z marketing can make anything a show and dance. Especially federation. All it would take is a good trend.
Who is it going to be?
I'm looking at platforms which already have federation/bridging systems in place. Such as Threads which has literally built 'Fediverse Sharing' into the settings (why Threads don't promote the setting they built is a whole other blog post).
Instead, it's come down to us to try and get people onboard. There's a small group of advocators who go out of their way to ask accounts and people on Threads to share to the Fediverse. I'm one of them.
Threads is my main focus, over there I have been reaching out to loads of different organisations - mostly charities - and trying to introduce them to the Social Web because it's just so simple over there to just turn it on in settings (if you live outside of Europe).
I've been doing the same on Bluesky too, but the general unfriendliness towards organisations there has made it hard to find any still active. Plus, whilst Snarfed's (Ryan Barrett) bridge is wonderful, it's hard to convince someone with a cold comment to follow a random account.
There have been some successes on both platforms, but mostly silence. Silence is the worst.
If you run a brand account, please don't ever ignore the people in the comments - I'm specifically calling out the UN & Olympics accounts on Threads here (what a flex!). Although, they may not be run outside of the EU.
You'd have thought charities, news publications, and social enterprises would be all for a social platform where they can't be controlled by one billionaire, but no major players are brave enough to turn on Federation yet...
What's the answer?
The teams behind Threads and Bluesky could take a few steps to help, including:
- Make 'Fediverse Sharing' on Threads opt-out when out of BETA.
- Speak more about the Fediverse and wider Social Web and why their platform is a part of it.
- Educate people who don't know what it all means with tutorials and educational posts.
- Encourage partners (I'm thinking of the people Threads are paying to use the platform) to turn on Fediverse Sharing.
What we can do is continue to call out brands, ask them why they're not on the Social Web, ask them to turn on Fediverse Sharing or follow the bridge!
If you are, or know, a social media manager please get in touch - saskia@newsmastfoundation.org. I'd love to understand better the bottlenecks that are stopping such a simple and positive change.
I'm hoping as we begin the next leg of organisation outreach at The Newsmast Foundation we'll have more opportunities to talk to social teams and help put their fears to rest.
Don't get me wrong, I know it's not perfect yet. I know the technology that lets these platforms talk to one another has holes. But we have to start somewhere.
If you're on social media and you see me, The Newsmast Foundation (spoiler alert: also me most of the time), or another of the cool people out there asking someone to turn it on - just give it a like or some positive reinforcement so that the account holder sees that this is in demand. if you see someone who hasn't federated and you want them to, ask!
I'd be so thrilled to have more people joining in this fight, together maybe we can get some people listening.
