Alternatives To Big Social

I like LinkedIn. I enjoy the connections I make there and I enjoy seeing where everyone is in their business life. But I've recently found that smaller social networks really where the true connections happen.

Platforms like Alignable have become popular as big tech gets more automated and less personal.

Alignable is just one of the smaller tech players that I use on a regular basis to connect with existing friends and make new ones. (I'm using "friends" loosely here).

Alignable is doing something right. They have Smart Connects™ , which are hour-long speed networking events held multiple times a day and for different industries and verticals. It's really a great way to meet new and interesting people to potentially do business with.

Services like BlueSky, and even more so for me, Mastodon have become havens for making new connection and cultivating old ones.

On Mastodon, I'm connecting with the diaspora from the fall of Twitter and with the federation of Meta's Threads with the greater Fediverse, I'm finding it really valuable for questions and discussions ranging from latest family happenings to what Google and big tech is messing up this time.

From a marketing standpoint, these new smaller social networks are untapped and ripe for innovation and marketing. But we have to be careful to observe the rules and customs of each network and respect each as an individual spot with its own personality.

Have you tried any of these alternative social networks? I'd love to know your thoughts.

The Latest From The Entrepreneur's Enigma Podcast

Web Jawn

• Podcast SEO: How to make your podcast discoverable in search engines
  A great run through of SEO tips for podcasters to implement from the team at Descript.
• Podcast Advertising: Ultimate Guide to Podcast Ads [2024]
  Well worth digging into if you're interested in starting or are doing a podcast.
• A Spy Site Is Scraping Discord and Selling Users’ Messages
  This isn't good and I doubt many folks on Discord know about this. Now you do!
• LinkedIn’s Testing a Premium Company Pages Business Subscription Option
  LinkedIn is certainly innovating. That's for sure. But does anyone want these features? Maybe????
• Will Airchat Become the Next Big Social Network?
  Probably not. But who knows. Clubhouse didn't that's for sure.
• Threads Tests Recent Search Filter To Provide More Timely Results
  Good to see Meta improving on the Threads interface, which is, right now, pretty bad.
• Meta Brings Advanced AI Chatbot to All of its Apps
  Bound to happen.
• US Senate Looks to Advance TikTok Ban Proposal
  It might actually happen!
• TikTok Launches Notes Photo App in Australia and Canada
  TikTok is going after Instagram straight on! And look Canada got something before the US!
• Will Airchat Become the Next Big Social Network?
  I just got an invite. It's pretty neat. Not sure if it's going to be sticky enough.
• Google Discover optimization: A complete guide
  Google Discover is a neat feature. Getting your articles in it will most likely boost your traction online. This is a complete guide on how to optimize for it.
• Meta could launch Threads ads this year
  Of course this was going to happen. 💩😒
• Brave Search unveils AI answer engine
  Neat feature, too bad Brave's CEO has questionable morals and ties to questionable groups.
• YouTube escalates war on ad blockers
  Part of me is pissed that ad blockers are starting to not work on YouTube, but YouTube is a business that runs because of advertising. So I get where they're coming from.
• TikTok fears point to larger problem: Poor media literacy in the social media age
  Some great points made in this article. Eye opening!
• Who Should Block AI Bots?
  An interesting take. I'm torn on whether I mind if AI scrapes my content.
• People will use ChatGPT to find answers in 2024 are your search KPIs ready?
  The article is from December 2023, but worth a read. Wil Reynolds is a SEO OG and I value his opinion.

Alternative To Instagram & TikTok's New Photo App

With all this talk of TikTok making a photo sharing element to their platform and Instagram being dominant. The Fediverse had an alternative to both with Pixelfed. Pixelfed is an open source, federated, photo-sharing app for the Web, Android, and iOS.

Like Mastodon, and the other Fediverse platforms, Pixelfed had different servers you can join. I help run the Pixey.org server. Just like Instagram, Pixelfed has filters and stories. Though the latter hasn't really caught on that much.

I for one am thrilled that theirs an alternative to Instagram. Check it out. You can find me at @phillycodehound.

That's It For This Week! Keep Rocking It!

-Seth