💭 Everyone’s jumping to Mastodon — should you?

Hey folks 👋🏾 

If something looks a little different to you — not counting the fact that this is coming on a Friday — that’s because it is! We’ve started slowly incorporating all your great feedback into our newsletter format, and I had a lot of fun re-configuring the newsletter with the Content team. Let us know how you feel about it here.

In today’s email:

• Jumping to Mastodon? Here’s what you should consider
• Mitra’s social tip: Debunk industry myths with your content
• What’s happening in social: Instagram rolls out subscriptions, YouTube monetizes Shorts, and Twitter 2-factor authentication has started failing for some users
• +All the best content from the blog

Before we get into it, I recommend bookmarking this great essay set against the backdrop of a content house that provides insight into the world of young creators. I hope you have a lovely start to the week, and we’ll see you next Friday!

Warmly, 

Tami & the Buffer team

P.S. Our 2023 State of Remote Work survey is still open to submissions. We’d love to hear from you and all your WFH friends and family about your past year of remote work! 

🏊🏼 Deep dive: Should you jump to Mastodon?

Mastodon, founded in 2016 by Eugen Rochko, is a decentralized, open-source software that allows users to set up servers to communicate with each other, and is growing in popularity as a “Twitter alternative.”

And while Mastodon has some similarities to Twitter, it’s decidedly not a replacement for the platform. Here are some things to consider before making a decision:

• Content moderation is a great incentive, but it depends strongly on which server you join
• Speaking of servers, different servers mean different audiences and a fragmented marketing strategy
• The lack of paid posts, targeting, and server format means you can’t share effective ads (yet)
• It might be too technical for your existing audience

But it’s still early days, so while we wouldn’t recommend leaving Twitter entirely, it’s worth getting to know how Mastodon works. Just don’t treat it like Twitter but as its own new, exciting space to explore.

🤔 Have you signed up for Buffer?

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👇🏽 The latest from the blog

• How Kareem Queeman Learned to Show Up Authentically as a Black, Queer Business Owner (and Why It Matters): Kareem used to fear showing off his Black, queer identity in his work until he realized authenticity was important for supporting others in his community. Here’s how he learned to show up more fully and take care of his mental health while doing so.
• How These Small Business Owners Learned To Let Go: In this article, Umber shares how, to grow their companies, these entrepreneurs learned to let go of outdated beliefs that no longer served themselves or their businesses.
• I’ve Never Offered a Black Friday Sale — Here’s What My Boutique Does Instead to Have a Six-Figure Weekend: Emily Grey doesn't do typical Black Fridays — learn why it’s helped her business succeed year after year and how you can approach the holiday season differently.

🎙️ Listen to our popular podcast for small business owners

Small Business, Big Lessons is a podcast from Buffer that goes behind the scenes with inspirational small businesses to explore how they are questioning the best ways to build a business and uncover the big lessons we can learn from their journeys (so far).

📱 Social Tip of The Week from Mitra, Buffer’s Social Media Manager 

“🔬 Myth vs. Fact”

Debunk a common myth in your industry! Putting together this video should be pretty quick and simple. You can film a video of yourself pointing up towards the text popping up in the video, or you can just use a simple clip that shows your product and add the text over your video. Be sure to time your text so when it says “share the myth,” your myth text pops up, and then when it says “share the fact,” your fact text pops up.

Check out this example from @themodgents, debunking a myth about the cost of engagement rings!

🤳 What's Happening in Social

• Instagram has some great news for creators as it expands its Subscriptions feature to cover more every eligible creator in the U.S. and other markets like Australia, Canada and the UK.
• In other great monetization news, YouTube opened up its Partner Program to Shorts creators — you can get a 45% cut of your ads (regardless of whether you use music or not 👀).
• Finally, some users have been reporting being unable to get back into their Twitter accounts because two-factor authentication is down.

Thanks for reading! 💟

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