Federated social media is just like normal social media except there is no one central hub and – more often than not – anyone can start their own social media website (sometimes called a node or instance) which can connect with all the users on all the other sites. In other words, you sign up in one place and enjoy content from all places.

Mastodon, Goodreads, BookWyrm, PeerTube, Pixelfed, and friendi.ca are all examples of federated social media. A lot of these ecosystems use technology such as ActivityPub which allows people to follow and get updates from people on other systems sometimes running with entirely different software.

A federated social network is really just a network of networks. It has the advantage of being able to run on a hobbyist budget instead of costing billions.

Your federated content strategy

First, think local

Before you can think about content that everyone will want to share everywhere, start a little smaller. In a federated ecosystem, if your content is not good for people in the same little pocket as you, it will probably never find a life outside of that.

So whatever part of federated social media you are in, create content for that place first.

Second, create for people

Federated social media is not driven by a content algorithm. The only way your content will spread is if actual human users like it and share it with their friends. Mastodon calls this “boosting”.

There is no big cheese – not Google, not Facebook, not Elon Musk – that you must please. There is only people like you.

Third, build connections

Federated social media is not a sales floor. It is more like a series of house parties. People are there to have fun and make friends.

Think of yourself as an aspiring movie director with a hot new idea. You will be far more likely to get Green Lit because you hit it off with a fabulous new producer at a trendy party in the home of some well-respected actor. On the other hand, if you show up wearing a massive advert, ringing a bell, and shouting over everyone you are most likely going to be shown the door.

Relax, stop selling and start making friends.