Mastodon Metrics Magic!

Metrics fascinate me!

We know this. I’ve often wondered why the use of metrics to measure impact and value has fascinated me quite so much as to me having even developed Metrix & Chill - an approach to understand how we can use metrics to articulate our value and impact through real behaviours exhibited.

Well today the penny has dropped for me in understanding why I love the art of metrics to tell a story of complex and sophisticated undercurrents behind the scenes.?Metrics are often the intriguing ‘front end’ of profound behavioural shifts that are often impossible to quantify in real-terms or with a financial proxy but no less valuable - and arguably even more valuable than the obvious return on investment.

It’s all thanks to Mastodon who have, today especially, embodied a dream case study of how metrics can represent a phenomenal rags to riches story - certainly in terms of a movement of cultural capital and identity in our global community.

Having built up a decent following on Twitter over the years - mainly through my education policy work - I was reluctant to transition straight over to the new social environment Mastodon, admittedly as it felt ‘unknown’. For those that are wondering what Mastodon is, it’s not least being pitched as a new and improved Twitter - in the current social media climate, at least.?

I’d been poised ready to get active on it for a couple of weeks and somebody important in my world, whose judgement in technology I trust, was the catalyst for me making the leap and signing up on a server to join the Mastodon community this morning.

I’m so glad I did too! Check out the screenshot of posts from a Mastodon admin that I've included as the cover picture for this article - such a great feeling of being valued in the communication style of this person! Very striking how the updates feel like they're especially for us and that we're part of something special developing. That feeling is a very powerful element in people choosing change.

The first of these updates was an hour after I ‘went live’ in the network (at which point they had 40,188 on this server) and only 8 hours later they had achieved 65,253 users (an average increase per hour of 3,133 new users on the server per hour) and new registrations were closed to “tune the server and database some more”. 15 days ago apparently this server only had 140 users! That’s an average growth of 4341 new users per day to the mastodonworld server. Well, the trajectory has certainly rocketed today, the rocket metaphor being a little ironic!???

Glad I’m generally quite inclined to be an early adopter of new technologies and I got in there to get my account launched early doors!???

This is a brilliant example of how judging using metrics in isolation from the more holistic picture to judge value is a common and dangerous trap.

It is only when you consider another metric quoted by Gerald Leppert that at the time of his post less than an hour ago Mastodon has around 6.3m users - and that, of course, is part of the wider #fediverse - as users consider their options other than Twitter - that you start to get a sense of how these user metrics are not one-dimensional about the nuts and bolts of people choosing to use a new social media environment.

Metrics like this reveal a social and cultural unfolding behind our screens. They reveal a profound shift in how in our collective and individual consciousness relate to how we interact with others online, our core values underpinning our interactions and arguably our societal rejection of power dynamics we perceive constrain our right to expressive freedom of speech.?

Today I‘ve been busy working so I’ve just let the ‘starter metrics’ on my account start to trickle through and take shape - exactly as happened with my LinkedIn and Twitter presence - several years ago before my content gained traction.

I am fascinated to observe what comes next in this metrics story representing a cultural revolution unlike any we’ve seen to date in the realm of social media in the sense of customers turning to other options based on their core values.

See you in the Mastodon-verse, perhaps??

To be very clear, I still (currently at least) have both a Twitter account and a Mastodon account. I don't (yet) have a formulated view about the relative merits for either. However, I thought the metrics dimension alone and the traction seen today was worthy of commentary.

Would love to hear your views about this emerging new social environment on the scene in the comments on this thread.

What do you think about it and how might you use it in the same way or differently to your other social media channels?

#metrics #socialmedia #revolution #Mastodon #tech

(Important to note that I have written this article in a personal capacity, as a user of social media and as a parent helping guide my children on their journey through their social media experienc in life - not as the employee of/in association with any organisation).