Exploring the alternatives to Twitter

The longer Elon Musk’s tenure as “Chief Twit” endures, the more dire the predictions for the future of Twitter. We’ve already seen how Musk’s changes to the platform have led to an increase in toxicity.

 

A Twitter engineer has warned that mass staff layoffs could lead Twitter to break completely and Musk himself has warned that there is a very real risk that the company will go bankrupt.

 

According to a poll by CharityComms 85% of charities are ‘watching carefully’ before deciding whether to remain on the platform or not. If charities do decide to leave – where should they go?

 

 

Factors to consider

 

Alongside the ethics of staying on Twitter, the top thing that charities should be watching is how their audience is behaving. As Jessica Stephens, Social Media Manager at Joseph Rowntree Foundation puts it, Twitter is, “where our community is. If that changes, so must we.”

 

There are a few actions charities could take to measure what’s happening with their followers and broader community on Twitter:

• Compare levels of engagement week on week. These fluctuate a lot on Twitter, but plotting them on a graph with a trendline will help spot changes
• Do some social listening to get a sense of how your community is feeling. Platforms like Sprout Social or freely available Tweet Deck include social listening functions

Charities could also review how Twitter fits into their overall social media strategy.

 

Twitter is a hub for celebrities, policymakers, and journalists. If your charity is using the platform to reach these groups, it could be time to think creatively about alternative platforms or channels you could use to reach them.

 

You may also be using Twitter to share links to long-form content. Email marketing offers another option for getting news and blog posts directly to your audience.

 

 

Alternatives to Twitter

 

 

Mastodon

 

Mastodon is registered in Germany as a non-profit limited liability company and owned by Eugen Rochko. He set it up in 2016 as an experimental alternative to Twitter.

 

When you sign up to Mastadon the first step is to choose your server based on geographic location or special interest. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon isn’t one single social network. It is a collection of servers connected via ‘The Fediverse.’ Each has their own governance and community standards.

 

On the face of it, Mastodon is quite similar to Twitter with 500 character “Toots” replacing 280-character Tweets. The poll and multimedia options are also available. You can “favourite” (like) or “boost” (retweet) but there isn’t an equivalent quote tweet function.

 

If you’re looking for a Twitter that isn’t Twitter, Mastadon is worth a try!

 

It’s also worth noting that their code is open source, so many of the other options are in fact Mastadon spin offs at heart.

 

 

CounterSocial

 

CounterSocial promises to be everything you wish social media platforms could be. Free from bots, trolls, malign state actors and full of news and what your friends are up to.

 

Intriguingly, it was founded in 2017 by an anonymous hacktivist going by the pseudonym, The Jester, and is funded by monthly subscriptions. Somewhat controversially, to stay true to its principles, the site has banned several nation states!

 

CounterSocial offers a range of enhanced security measures including:

• Deepfake detection
• Identity breach alerts
• Political bias and fake news indicators

It also includes a range of functions such as groups, video conferencing and even virtual reality realms!

 

The user experience is quite Tweet-decky! The home screen is laid out as a series of feeds including “community firehose” as a newsfeed equivalent and a specific feed for content from friends.

 

If your community is likely to embrace a social platform that is radically different from the norm or your organisation’s work attracts significant security threats, CounterSocial could be an option.

 

 

LinkedIn

 

LinkedIn has been growing steadily since it was acquired by Microsoft in 2016. It has also evolved from a platform hosting online CVs and announcing new jobs to one with a richer depth of content and new functions like newsletters.

 

In addition to using social media for our nonprofit organisations, many of us use it to keep up with sector news and views. Just under half of UK adults have a profile on the social network, so it’s likely that the sector friends you follow on Twitter are also on LinkedIn.

 

LinkedIn could also be a good option for nonprofits working in collaboration with or to support other organisations. 

 

If you do decide to make a switch, consider using a tool to find your friends and followers on the new site. Twitodon will help you find your followers and people you follow on Mastadon and Twitoso (low code) allows you to download the usernames from your twitter account and upload them to CounterSocial.