wow, so much for "I need to be on Twitter to be seen", looks like the Apartheid Clyde has had a say in that.

"Free Speech" they shout at us, making sure it is only their speech that anybody ever sees.

Here's the even more interesting part: the absolute values.

Twitter used to be the clear winner for me, but Bluesky is rapidly catching up. Even though I have 3x more followers on X than Bluesky, the actual numbers on positive or neutral engagement here is nearly as high. That's amazing - and this is why, if you want to hear the most from me, I recommend following me on Bluesky directly or on my fediverse bridge account rather than this one. Here it is -> @katharinehayhoe.com

Other interesting platform-specific tidbits:

On Mastodon people were most likely to share, while on LinkedIn they were least likely to.

More people hit the heart button on Threads, but Bluesky was tops for comments.
‪
Bottom line:

One of the main reasons I use social media is to provide accurate + relevant climate info, so I use analyses like this to help inform where best to spend my time. These days, engagement is:

* on its way up on LinkedIn + Bluesky
* holding steady on Mastodon
* headed down on Threads, Facebook + X

I hope this is of interest - feel free to comment and share your own experiences!

@ai6yr interestingly, while changes in the X algorithm have frozen by account and cut my engagement significantly, my data shows that I am being shadow-banned even more strongly on Meta platforms.

In Aug 2018, 'clean energy' was added to FB's "socially sensitive topics" list, and my page's growth was cut in half. A few months later, 'climate change' was added. My page growth froze at 46k then decreased, and my engagement dropped about 10x.

Now, changes in the Threads algorithm made in November have similarly frozen my Threads account and tanked engagement there as well. Here's the data below.

PS. I should also mention that my data shows clear evidence of algorithmic changes on Facebook (Fall 2018), X (Fall 2022 and ongoing) and now Threads (Nov 2024) explicitly downweighting climate content.

In Aug 2018, 'clean energy' was added to FB's "socially sensitive topics" list, and my page's growth was cut in half. A few months later, 'climate change' was added. My page growth froze at 46k then decreased, and my engagement dropped about 10x.

Now, changes in the Threads algorithm made in November have similarly frozen my Threads account and tanked engagement there as well. Here's the data below.

For more on how X's changes have boosted denial, read @ketan's analysis here: ketanjoshi.co/2023/03/28/musk-…

Yes I do find your analysis really helpful, and I can guess how much work this actually is. I am still lukewarm about LinkedIn because I find it slow and in fact difficult to maneuver.

So a more or less parallel operation on bluesky and mastodon is the current answer for me.

@Nonya_Bidniss Well, I admire your work and professionalism. You're doing important work that we all benefit from.

Masto dudes: What the fuck? I want to hear more about this. I will NOT engage with threads or bluesky. Kindly SHUT THE FUCK UP and let the good Doctor work. Oh noes, you would have presented the data differe-SIT DOWN, asshole, you DIDN'T do the work, so you opinion on presentation isn't important. She's a fucking expert, let her present the way she prefers, she prefers it for a reason.

Sorry. I'm fucking fed up with dickheads making this environment so unpleasant for certain groups of people; the ogenies are one of the biggest things I came here to get away from. It's coming between us and important work, and I'm fucking furious.

Shut the fuck up, guys.

@Ruth_Mottram that is interesting - would you say that is true for normalised values (per 1k followers)?

LI is a very different platform. Mostly business/professional people. I've had to figure out how to use it very differently. Like a foreign language :)

@annepm225 thank you!

No, I didn't include Instagram as it's not a text-based social media platform, but I should consider it for sure!

@alienghic you are not alone: that is the subject of one of my most-watched Global Weirding episodes!

youtube.com/watch?v=SpjL_otLq6…

I recently updated it at a global conference of evangelical leaders: lausanne.org/video/faith-and-t…

@ketan We will start to see more #DataStrikes

How to poison the data that Big Tech uses to surveil you and mess with the algorithms.
technologyreview.com/2021/03/0…

That is why I follow you, because you build an interesting bridge btw science and religion.¹ 🤗 Which often enough means dispelling the political fog with which religious topics are surrounded in order to misuse them. Religious sources are often more reasonable (minding their historical context) than many might think.

¹I am not religious myself, but I understand that religions are a formative part of our history and that they are part of life for many people.
@alienghic

Thanks. It is very interesting to see the engagement per 1.000 followers spread over the social media platforms.

Mastodon is less then that I expected but way above LinkedIn, Facebook and X.

The loss in engagement going from Twitter to X is amazing.

I am impressed with the job Threads is doing.

@kathhayhoe
#SocialMedia #Mastodon #X #Threads #Bluesky

I do think that this is really good for Mastodon. Most people do properly prefer Bluesky or Threads and some of them created a Mastodon account first but left as soon as there where options available. This is properly the case because those other platforms do feel easier to get into.

But the engagement on mastodon could convince some big social media accounts to rethinkabout creating an Mastodon one as well.

@paulschoe I was at first too, but unfortunately algorithm changes made in November have essentially frozen my account there and tanked engagement on Threads. I have another analysis just comparing Threads and Bluesky here:

fed.brid.gy/r/bsky.app/profile…

@teledyn I'm just not there. As one human there's a limit to the number of platforms I can juggle.

As for bubbles, it depends on why you're on a certain platform. The reason I engage on different platforms is because of the different audiences on each.

@noctuaminervae

I notice this dared not a stroll into Tumblr 🤣

but also, what value have interaction stats when we know those platforms constrain to bubbles? At best, it illustrates Hawking's assertion "There is no Archimedian Point."

And maybe, for that reason, Anecdote IS data, provided we sum all Feynman graphs! I often post identical items to Mastodon and Tumblr, and over the past two years, yes, the energy is very different, which is why I spend more time there: it's safer.

from the bottom of my heart, thank you for making a solid argument there and curing an old grumpy atheist of another prejudice about evangelicals 🙏

I watched the whole thing… here's me cheering for you not being an outlier 🙀

@alienghic

@katharinehayhoe.com
I'm sorry to see that you plan to post more often on BlueSky than on here, but I thank you for posting!

I read your posts but rarely make a comment since I don't have anything to add. I read your posts so that I can learn.

Anyway, sending you the best of luck, and sorry to hear that you get so much "friendly fire" here 😬

Wow, that difference between #Threads and #Bluesky in just 2 months is just amazing.

'At the end of October, both my accounts had 20k followers. Today, Bluesky is at 80k, but Threads has dropped to 19.7k. ;

It shows the effect of algorithms and how also Musk can indeed completely stop a successful account, with tens of thousands of followers, from being seen anymore on X.

I know that the same thing happened to YouTube channels.

@kathhayhoe

Musk, 10 years ago: Global warming is an existential threat to human existence.

Recently: Global warming is a hoax.

Hidden Killers Food, Water, Air, An Exhaustive Compendium on Global Warming Driven Climate Change
tinyurl.com/2ptesj2a

Any platform that is actively boosting or suppressing content needs to be viewed and regulated as a broadcaster. They should be required to get a broadcast license and be under the same scrutiny and anyone else in that position of mass influence.

This is no longer #FreeSpeech

#Facebook #Twitter #SocialMedia