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The Least-Awful Social Media Sites for Anyone Who Wants to Be Less Unhappy

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By  Stephen Johnson

There is no law that says you have to use Twitter.

Almost everyone agrees that large swaths of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit are terrible, each in their own way. But these monolithic social media platforms are so ubiquitous, it’s easy to forget that you don’t have to use them. Which isn’t to say that you have to swear off of social media forever: There are less odious alternatives that will still let you participate in online life.

These smaller, scrappier social media platforms aim to either correct the most egregious mistakes their big brothers and sisters make, or to provide niche experiences that the larger social media companies can’t/won’t. Below are alternatives to five of the most popular social media platforms. None of them are perfect, but they’re at least different, and probably less terrible. Plus, if any of them really catch on, you can be first to complain about how they used to be so much better.

Ditch Facebook for MeWe: Freedom from advertising and tracking

There are tons of reasons to join the crowds fleeing Facebook—its terrifying targeted advertising policies, rampant misinformation, people use it to plan genocides, your cousin Gary—and only one reason to stay: The sheer number of users. Everyone is on Facebook, and maybe that’s the problem.

My suggested Facebook alternative, MeWe, offers a lot of features that will be familiar to Facebook-users—groups, private chats, tagging, content permissions—and boasts a Facebook-like look and feel, but WeMe is less evil. It’s completely advertising free and doesn’t track or sell its users’ data, staying afloat by offering for-pay premium services. On the downside: There are reportedly 16 million users of WeMe, which might sound like a lot, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to Facebook’s nearly 3 billion users.

Switch from Twitter to WT.Social: News with less misinformation and hysteria

I’ve had a Twitter account since 2010, but I can’t anymore. I just want links to interesting news stories and the occasional cute cat pic, but Twitter seems intent on serving up maddening, toxic nonsense. The site is awash in hysteria, misinformation, manipulation, and bitterness. If you’re just sick of it like I am, check out WT.Social.

Launched in 2019 by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, WT.social is completely ad-free and dedicated to combating misinformation by allowing users to flag and edit any post, like a certain famous online encyclopedia. There are no advertisers to appease, since the service is paid for through voluntary donations, and WT.social says its mission is to “foster an environment where bad actors are removed because it is right, not because it suddenly affects our bottom-line.”

Switch from Instagram to 500px: Better photos, less psychological trauma

Instagram has long been known to be devastating to the mental health of young people. The photo-sharing platform has been associated with depression, self-esteem issues, social anxiety, and other issues. It’s run by the same people who run Facebook, who seem bent on making social media experiences as addictive as possible. If you’re a photographer and you don’t want to support any of that just to show off your pics, you should switch to 500px.

The platform’s philosophy is built around quality pictures, so you can view and post pics in high resolution. The algorithm that determines which photographs are widely shared is based less on your number of followers and more on “likes” from people who don’t follow you. There are even opportunities to monetize your work.

While 500px is geared toward photographers, if you just like looking at pretty pictures, it might be the service for you too. Unlike Instagram’s mix of pictures, ads, and videos, 500px’s feeds feature only photographs, and it feeds aren’t based on Zuckerberg-style algorithms, so you’ll see only what you want to see.

Switch from TikTok to, well, something

TikTok is the nearly universal choice of young people eager to watch and share shorter videos. TikTok is so huge at the moment, it has no realistic challengers (other than old-school YouTube), and none on the horizon—but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any alternatives. Here are a few video sharing apps that offer things TikTok does not.

  • Triller. This app makes the already easy process of posting videos online even easier. Triller uses AI to edit videos in time to pre-selected music.
  • Clapper. If you’re worried that your important political views are being censored by TikTok, this moderation-light platform will let you spout off whatever dumb nonsense you’d like.
  • Clash. Created by one of the co-founders of Vine, Clash focuses on short form videos, and isn’t designed as a challenger to TikTok as much as a sidecar: It allows creators with existing followings to interact with and monetize their audience in exciting new ways. But that also means users can interact with their faves more easily, too.

Switch from Reddit to Discourse: Less dumbness, more smartness

It’s hard to believe now, but for a couple years after Reddit launched in 2005, it was a discussion forum for smart people. Unfortunately, popularity and an aversion to curation and moderation lead to a dumbing down of content and a proliferation of hateful and boring users. For a smaller, more focused discussion-based community, try Discourse. This open-source forum platform’s stated goal is to “raise the standard of civilized discourse on the internet through seeding it with better discussion software.” In practice, that means trusted, frequent users have a say in how communities are managed; it’s easy to flag bad content; and there exists robust and user-customizable curation. Plus, fewer people use it, so it hasn’t been ruined…yet.

Feature Image Credit: Chernousov family (Shutterstock)

By  Stephen Johnson

Sourced from lifehacker

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“It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach”: How marketers are using Reddit to build loyalty and drive sales

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By Erika Wheless

In November of last year, Tushy, the DTC bidet attachment company, debuted an ad on Reddit where it agreed to make a limited edition bidet that changed the “Bum Wash” label to “A** Blast” if the ad was upvoted 10,000 times.

Andy Stone, director of growth marketing at Tushy, says the company took a closer look at advertising on Reddit after being approached by Joe Federer, the former head of brand strategy at Reddit who founded [An Internet Reference], which specializes in advertising on the platform.

According to Stone, Tushy saw an average of 4.5x return on ad spend looking at the full scope of the customer journey. They plan to have Reddit as part of their regular ad strategy this year.

As e-commerce has boomed, Reddit has started to become a player in the consumer buying funnel. The site’s honest, in-depth reviews make it attractive to high-intent customers. “The path to purchase is changing and we’re seeing that Reddit is more front and centre in the e-commerce experience,” said Jen Wong, COO of Reddit.

Late last year, Reddit rolled out three ad inventory tiers with a focus on targeting and brand safety, which has been an issue. Marketers didn’t want to risk brand safety on the opinionated site. Despite these updates, Reddit is still an experimental space for marketers and requires a more nuanced approach than repurposing an ad from Facebook. But there are some brands who have managed to strike the right tone and have seen successful conversions.

Breaking into these communities can be a challenge for marketing teams. It’s particularly important to have thoughtful targeting and creative, and to be ready to engage with users’ questions and comments. Reddit users are notoriously opinionated.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach,” said Stone.

Reddit’s ad platform is still relatively new. “Advertisers can’t yet expect the bells and whistles they might expect elsewhere,” said Alex Young, director of paid social at Carat. “There are only a few ad formats, buying methods, and optimization functionalities.”

Redditors are not shy about downvoting brands who don’t engage in the spirit of the site. Electronics Arts ended up with a world-record, most-downvoted comment after a poor response to a Redditor’s question.

“A brand’s success is more to do with the demeanour of the brand than the brand itself,” said Federer. “They have to come correct and take time to get those community nuances.”

Federer says he would love to see Reddit’s ad offerings lean into their unique communities. “Right now it feels pretty in line with other social media platforms,” he said. “I wish there was a clearer way to ad value, like adding a filter or widget in the sidebar for r/adobe.”

There is a lot of potential upside for brands that get it right. Last October, the site said it averaged 52 million daily viewers. (Facebook said it had 1.82 billion daily users last September.) In December, Wong told the Wall Street Journal that Reddit’s ad revenue totalled more than $100 million in 2019 and was on track to rise by more than 70% in 2020. Reddit declined to breakdown or share revenue details.

Oh and Tushy’s limited edition bidet? “OP will make good on the actual product,” assures Stone

By Erika Wheless

Sourced from DIGIDAY

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Reddit Adds New Video Ad Options, Including a New Mobile Landing Page Flow

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Reddit has this week announced some new video ad options, as it seeks to maximize its revenue opportunities heading into the holiday season.

First up, Reddit is adding a new mobile landing page flow for video ads, which will better guide users through the ad engagement process.

process.

Reddit video ad flow

As explained by Reddit:

“To improve the video ads experience for both users and advertisers, we are enabling a new landing page on mobile that combines a seamless viewing experience with additional branding and product information that directs to the advertiser’s website. With this update, Reddit users who click an in-feed video ad will be taken to a website that will continue playing the video, uninterrupted, alongside other branding and marketing from the advertiser.”

It essentially builds out the Reddit video ad experience – rather than re-directing you to another site, Reddit will now facilitate more branding and engagement opportunities within its own video experience.

Reddit will also now support additional aspect ratios in its video ads, with 1:1 square and 4:5 vertical video now available, in addition to 16:9 and 4:3 video formats.

Reddit video ad specs

“This means advertisers can now utilize cross-platform video assets – without having to recreate content specifically for Reddit ads – and will have more options to choose from.”

And finally, Reddit is also now offering optional referral URLs for CPV campaigns, “which will enable a cleaner video ad experience for campaigns with video views as the primary campaign objective”.

While it may not be your primary social marketing option, Reddit does still hold significant potential, and can be a valuable advertising and outreach option – for those brands that are able to get it right.

The growing platform currently serves 330 Million monthly active users, across some 130,000 active communities. In fact, there are Reddit communities (subreddits) for pretty much everything you can think of, each with passionate, dedicated members, discussing news and issues that are likely of relevance to your industry.

Reddit relevance

Reddit is also seeing 30% growth in views, year on year, and facilitates reach to audiences who are simply not active on other networks.

It might not be the prime candidate for your outreach, but the numbers suggest that it may well be worth some additional consideration.

These new video options will expand the potential for experimentation on the site – something to keep in mind for your 2020 planning.

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Sourced from Social Media Today

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How to Use Reddit to Build Up Your Professional Credibility

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By John Boitnott.

Think of the social site as more of a giant networking community with its own peculiar rules, rather than just some marketing tool.

Reddit is an online platform that is often overlooked as a business tool. The site forbids marketing but is a useful place for you to contribute your expertise and learn from others. As with other social media sites, it’s important to be active, professional and engaging in order to be successful.

If you are not familiar with Reddit, here’s a quick overview: The plain-paged platform calls itself the Internet’s front page. The content on the site is organized into many narrow and broad categories or “subreddits.” There are thousands of these on the site, but popular subreddits include technology, random, online marketing, and news. The audience consists primarily of men, ages 18 to 35.

Entrepreneurs, professionals, and marketers all can gain audiences on Reddit, once they have spent time to find people with whom they share interests. Essentially, you’re looking for your own niche audience of sorts. Being active on the site by adding content, comments, replies, and useful information are all ways to build relationships. Be sure not to over-extend your reach; stick to the knowledge that you have, without trying to mislead.

Share Knowledge

Content is perhaps the most important part of contributing to Reddit, so ensure your posts are useful and timely. Use your own knowledge to answer questions when you are confident in your information.

For example, if you work as an IT person, find tech subreddits to help other users with their computer questions. As others interact with you, they may start to see you as a solid contributor and even return later for questions or comments. Lawyers can offer legal advice, nurses can contribute health advice, and other professionals can do the same for their fields.

Keep your information strong, useful, and never include spam. If you mention your company or a product you care about, it should be essential information that is highly relevant to the information you’re giving a community.

Ask Me Anything

One particularly notable type of post, that even has it’s own subreddit, is called “Ask Me Anything (AMA).” These are conversations between notable people in a field and the members of that community or subreddit. Such discussions tend to be interesting, popular, and engaging.

Many celebrities and politicians have contributed these posts, with great reception. As an expert in your field, posting your own AMA can bring in a lot of traffic. For example, if you are a personal trainer, you could post an AMA thread and respond to questions as they come in. Some of the questions asked are outlandish or uncomfortable, but the environment is typically positive and keeps people engaged in discussions.

Learning From Others, Free of Charge

You don’t have to start your own AMA to interact with others around subjects in which you may have some expertise. I see people regularly just post a question as a thread in any community or subreddit they frequent, as a way to spark discussion. If you are struggling with certain technical aspects of your craft, or think you are particularly skilled, this is an opportunity to see how others handle the same issues.

The idea here is that you can use Reddit as an opportunity to learn from other professionals, free of charge. Not only will you grow and learn, but you will also build two-way relationships.

Perfect Your Timing

Most social platforms will allow you to set media to be posted at scheduled times, but Reddit doesn’t have this option. This makes it important to post during times where a lot of people are using the site.

If you spend a good amount of time interacting with people in a subreddit, you will get a feel for when many others like you are online and interacting. Often it is during the middle of the day. Be sure to set aside a few minutes during that time to read interesting posts or comment on them. If you do not interact during peak times, there is a good chance anything you post will get lost among others.

Also, understand that if you post something during peak hours, people may miss it because there’s so much content arriving on the site constantly. Aim for sharing high quality content. The higher the quality, the better chance it has of being seen.

Invite People to Your Sites

Once you have established a professional reputation and built relationships, you can feel better about inviting users to your sites outside of Reddit when appropriate. Be sure you never come across as spammy and are sincere in your interactions.

Only suggest your sites if another user is interested or could benefit from your services. Returning to the personal trainer example: If a fellow Reddit user is looking for the creation of a dietary plan, send them to your site for reference or to request services.

Remember that Reddit is not a marketing tool. Think of the platform as a professional association or as a way to network and treat it appropriately. Use it as a means to trade ideas, help others, and learn more about your field from others. You or your business may indeed eventually receive some positive notoriety from your Reddit interactions, but that is because you contributed positively to a community, not because you kept promoting yourself.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By John Boitnott

A journalist and digital consultant, John Boitnott has worked at TV, newspaper, radio, and internet companies in California for 20 years. Full bio

Sourced from Inc.

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Reddit Looks to Lure Advertisers With Video and Redesign

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By Lara O’Reilly.

Reddit is rolling out video ads and improving its ad-buying platform

CANNES, France – While Snapchat had its Ferris wheel and Google and Facebook had their beach setups, Reddit was low-key at the Cannes Lions ad festival this year, renting a modest apartment near the action on the busy coastline.

But the high-trafficked website did come with a fresh pitch for advertisers. It is rolling out video ads, which will be available through its sales team and its existing self-service ad buying platform.

“It’s really exciting for us because Reddit does not currently host video,” Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian said. “It made a lot of sense and we had a lot of advertisers asking us for it, so we built it.”

Reddit wants to encourage more advertisers to consider the link-sharing site that calls itself “the front page of the internet” as a destination for their marketing budgets.

The self-serve ad buying platform has been overhauled to give advertisers more options to buy ads on the site. Reddit sells sponsored posts, mobile “cards” and banner ad formats

Reddit is also partnering with media agencies including WPP’s Essence and Omnicom Group ’s Resolution Media to build self-service ad products for their clients to use.

“Reddit is one of advertising’s best kept secrets,” said Sherwin Su, associate director of social at Essence. “At the core of their platform is a highly passionate and engaged group of users who are influential, authentic and disruptive across the internet

The company launched its first official mobile app last year and a desktop redesign is also on the way in the fourth quarter of this year. Desktop ad units, which currently sit at the top of the page, will soon appear in-line with feed. Reddit is also looking at ways to provide more data for marketers about what people are saying about their brands and product categories on the site.

“What [marketers] are clamoring for most is a dashboard” to monitor their brands, Mr. Ohanian said, although there are no immediate plans to launch one.

Reddit was the 64th most-visited website in the U.S. in May with 48 million visitors, according to comScore. Research firm Alexa ranks Reddit as the seventh most visited website worldwide, which demonstrates the opportunity for marketers to reach big audiences on the platform.

But there are also challenges. The language shared by Redditors can sometimes be coarse. Marketers may be wary of the appropriateness of their ads appearing against controversial discussion topics. The issue of “brand safety” drew headlines this year after newspaper reports showed ads next to extremist content on YouTube.

Redditors also can be quick to turn on posts they feels are overly-promotional. There’s even a sub-reddit dedicated to shaming company shills they believe are posting on the site, called /r/hailcorporate.

But Mr. Ohanian said Reddit can put on the “guard rails” to prevent ads from appearing next to certain communities and keyboards. It is also testing tools with brands including Nintendo, Washington Post and Major League Baseball to help marketers manage their profiles and presence on Reddit, which Mr. Ohanian said has “eliminated the stigma of self-promotion.”

Reddit’s message to marketers is that the benefits of having a dialog with an engaged community outweighs the risks. It does not offer the same level of sophisticated ad-buying, measurement and account management teams that Google or Facebook does.

“The first decade of social has been remarkably anti-social — all these tools are for broadcasting,” Mr. Ohanian said. “The places where brands are starting to get real traction is where they are going to have that conversation with customers. Reddit happens to be really good at that.”

Reddit has grown its team significantly in the two and a half years since Mr. Ohanian and his co-founder Steve Huffman returned to the company, having left in 2009 to start up the travel site Hipmunk. Reddit had 65 employees two years ago and now it has 215 people.

Mr. Ohanian declined to comment on Reddit’s financial performance. A spokeswoman said 5,000 businesses have used the self-service platform to date. Mr. Ohanian also declined to comment on a Bloomberg report that Reddit is looking to raise a $150 million round of investment that would give the company a valuation of about $1.7 billion.

Reddit was founded in 2005 by Mr. Ohanian and his then-fellow university student Steve Huffman. The pair turned down an acquisition offer from Google just months later, although the site was sold a year after to magazine publisher Conde Nast.

Conde Nast spun off Reddit in 2011, although it is still a shareholder in the company. Reddit has raised just over $50 million in funding to date, according to CrunchBase.

“We don’t want to have to be dependent on fundraising,” Mr. Ohanian said. “The strongest position any company can be in is being able to grow your own destiny.”

Image: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian. Photo: Garry Tan

By Lara O’Reilly

Write to Lara O’Reilly at lara.o’[email protected]

Sourced from The Wall Street Journal

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