News publishers are bemoaning the drop in Twitter traffic referrals under Musk. But they have a plan: They'll put more of their stuff on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Because they're monumentally oblivious to the lesson they've (again) failed to learn. Namely: Do not trust or rely on centralized systems you don't control.
https://digiday.com/media/publishers-lament-the-removal-of-twitter-moments-as-referral-traffic-dips/
@dangillmor Perhaps they should pivot to video.
@dangillmor someone will fill this mass hole created by Twitter going all hate
@dangillmor @ben Seeing as they’re all centralised platforms themselves, you can understand their confusion.
@dangillmor it's like they've completely forgotten their origins and the value of owning the presses.
Huh weird, seems like just yesterday they were bemoaning the fact that their content *was* on social media.
Money for nothing, the clicks are free.
@dangillmor LinkedIn? LinkedIn?
I'm sorry, but what the hell are they thinking?
@dangillmor Are news publishers scared of the Fediverse?
@atomicpoet
@dangillmor I think they consider fediverse as less relevant because the word of mouth on twitter is that we are soooo few and far right successfully made us looks like nazis and pedos... I closed my twitter account 5 years ago but still use nitter to check out and twitter looks more like a virtual congress assault with far right stupidity everywhere and the fact that news publishers still consider this plateform relevant frighten me...
@erin @atomicpoet @dangillmor I'm sure that's a big part of it; really tho', I think an equally big part is the network effect of "all the other journos I know are still on Twitter..." (~1/3rd of the journos I followed on Twitter set up Masto accounts when Elon told us to let the sink in... My guess is that they'll start actually posting here as Twitter, inevitably, becomes less & less usable. We'll see!)
Almost all journalists work for big capital. Big capital chooses journalists who support big capital. Thus the profession is filled with people who won't believe a project can work unless it's owned and funded by big capital.
Journalists at famous companies skew toward children of wealthy elites.
I suspect they may way to actively avoid showing people effective community based anti-corporate solutions.
@atomicpoet @dangillmor @kcarruthers it’s small compared to the big corporate platforms. They’re gonna go where they think the eyeballs are, even if it means putting their fate in the hands of Facebook, the company notorious for being honest about analytics…
@atomicpoet they are still waiting for answers from the 'How Can We Monetize This' workgroup.
@dangillmor
@dangillmor businesses rely all the time on centralized systems they don’t control. Usually it works if there is a win win situation and rational grownup decision makers. Advertiser don’t rely on Twitter, its contribution is negligible as far as I can tell.
Political right-wingers aren't the only conservatives out there. Change is hard.
@BobCollins @dangillmor Right-wingers aren't conservative any more anyway, are they?
@dangillmor Does anyone look at LinkedIn if they aren't looking for a job? Don't we have record unemployment?
@dangillmor every one of them should be trying out an activitypub feed for each section and telling consumers to subscribe that way.
@dangillmor People use LinkedIn for news?
I mean, I check in there maybe once a month, and I have no idea why.
@roadskater @dangillmor I contacted comma at my uni to promote a summer school I organise and asked if they were going to shift to Masto as twitter is dead. Got a reply telling me how amazing LinkedIn is and they would heavily promote there. Honestly, I just wanted to cry.
@roadskater @dangillmor Comms not comma ffs
@dangillmor @cathygellis so what you’re saying, in essence is, if you keep doing the same things in the same way and expect different results you might be, checks notes, insane?
@dangillmor a ridiculously stupid take.
@CraigPendlebury @dangillmor You might need to explain...
@dangillmor I'm going to bet that most of them don't yet understand the problem they've encountered with Twitter.
@dangillmor Decisions made with a lack of understanding of the core problems one is trying to solve often look like hitting oneself with the same stick in the head repeatedly over and over again.
@dangillmor Hear me out. What if the issue is that newspapers are too often part of massive conglomerates who are more interested in chasing clicks than actually producing meaningful journalism?
@dangillmor, many of those marketing managers measure their own value, and the one of their departments, by the budget they spend on things. Partly because it is hard to measure the values generated by marketing. They would need a big, expensive and shiny company, selling them services in the #fediverse . And everybody else would need to applause them for investing big money into that.
@dangillmor
"Newsletters"
@dangillmor publishing your news on platforms where your audience spends much of its time isn't such a bad idea.
@dangillmor Facebook already has a history of messing with traffic to domains, so...
@dangillmor They already own their own centralized platforms that they control. They have their broadcasts, their newspapers, their websites. Their social media presence is meant to drive people towards their own ecosystems. It's not about trust, it's about going where people already are.
@dangillmor amazing how when the entire management of a social media platform says don't trust mainstream media, no one agreeing with them will read mainstream media.
@dangillmor I don't care, as long as Musk loses
@dangillmor@mastodon.social LinkedIn?
LinkedIn?!??!?
Like, that place that's full of "8 tips to be the master the AIs and make the moanies" and "gravity is also magnets, mirite" posts?
Yeah, they'll do banging business there.
And they already tried the Facebook thing years ago. They got pushed out by right wing conspiracy theories, and that was without an out and active right wing conspiracy theorist in charge.
@dangillmor Never underestimate the draw of easy and seemingly safe decisions.
I dumped FaceBork ages ago, and am still attempting to kill my LinkedIn account, after several years trying to close it.
@dangillmor it's. Not just the centralization issue, it's that the other users of those platforms may not be people we wish to discuss personal thoughts with. Comments about posts from news publishers on linkedin are seen by coworkers and management. On FB they are seen by extended family & friends. Been there, done that, it's not good.