What you need to know about social media vs. social change organizations
ECM is a small organization, and I spend most of my time organizing change-making projects and events for the general public. When I post to social media, I strive to make it really high quality stuff.
You won’t get news about the latest pop stars, and we don’t do $ promoted posts. I don’t post often, but when I do, I’ll share info about ECM events and projects, or a link to some wonderful article I’ve found about how someone is making the world a better place.
Algorithms don’t like this. In fact, they’re programmed to suppress it. It’s part of the end of net neutrality. The big platforms like Facebook & Twitter are now DECIDING FOR YOU what constitutes a “quality post.” They’re programming what they put in front of you, and what they allow you to see.
Facebook algorithms (and likely the new Twitter algorithm) prioritize paid promotions. They actively suppress the social minority. They prioritize obscene levels of popularity (which means more, more, more consumerist culture).
And, because the big platforms want to create empires within themselves, that users never leave, they demote posts which link to other sites (such as “full info about this ECM event is on my blog” and “see this great article by Bill McKibben”). They arrange things precisely to demote high quality info like the kind I offer you.
So … if you want to get a truly quality experience (get all my posts, and all from others like me), you need to override their algorithms. Here’s how:
Facebook – Hop on the ECM Facebook page, and “Like” us. Then — and this one’s really important — CHOOSE WHAT YOU SEE FROM OUR PAGE: (1) Click on the little down-arrow next to “liked” (2) Select “Posts in news feed”.
Twitter – in the near future, when they ditch chronological order and go to their new algorithm, you will need to OPT OUT. [More info coming on how to do that] Follow me at @ecmjoanne
Instagram – still runs chronologically. No need to override. Follow me at @ecmjoanne
