As an agency working in social, we have had mixed emotions over what has been happening at Twitter over the last few months. Reading all of the layoff messages of past Twitter employees ON Twitter saying goodbye to friends and colleagues after years of collaboration has left us heartbroken. Reading news about brands and advertisers abandoning the platform due to safety concerns, and in turn, refusing to fuel a platform that provides an avenue for hate speech to spread has left us feeling a bit more optimistic and that there are still good people working to enact change. 

The one thing that we’re absolutely stoked about is the emergence and growth of several new social media platforms as a result. Several incredible people have said enough is enough and are refusing to accept Twitter for what it is becoming. This stance is creating new options and safe spaces for people looking to find a new version of their voices and communities. 

Naturally, we’ve raced to sign up and get on these platforms to see what they are all about and we’ve got some early thoughts. 

One of the first channels we saw emerge early was Hive Social, and we’re still low-key major fans of the platform. The Hive Team (@hive) continues to provide regular updates about the app and security, including how they manage user data, NSFW content, and new features coming over the next few weeks. The user experience is pretty solid but still has a few bugs to work through. It’s clear regular users are still trying to figure out how best to engage with other folks, what content resonates, and what this platform might actually turn into. We’re personally waiting to see when and how brands and prominent figures will join, and if turns Hive into another social brand that becomes a common lexicon. 

Up next, Mastodon. Okay. The first time we landed in Mastodon’s world, we were shocked and lost. There’s a lot to unpack and try to understand. To start, mastodon.social is described as being part of the decentralized network powered by Mastodon. They describe themselves as a social network that’s not for sale. “Your home feed should be filled with what matters to you most, not what a corporation thinks you should see. Radically different social media, back in the hands of the people.” As human beings, we love this. As a social media agency, we sigh and say okay fine, you can have this platform for yourselves. 

One of our favourite new sites to emerge is Spoutible.com. One of the founders, Christopher Bouzy, describes this incredible platform as a safe space for marginalized communities. If Spoutible feels familiar, you’re not alone as it’s extremely close in feel to Twitter. Thankfully it’s purposefully designed to keep hate and misinformation off the platform, which we love. A few of our team members have been on the platform for the last few weeks and we’re still figuring it out. One feature we’re loving already is the ability to jump between Spouts (their version of Tweets) that are gaining traction, a timeline based on folks you follow, and Explore, allowing you to see a broad range of topics people are talking about. 

Another platform that quickly caught our attention is Tribel, who refer to themselves as social media done right. What stood out to us immediately is their organization of content. Right off the top, you can jump between Friends, Following, Breaking (news) and Trending (topics). The planners in us immediately yelled YES to this organization as that’s exactly how we like to jump between the types of content we want to see, versus having all of those options mashed together into one timeline. You’re also able to personalize your feed by choosing topics that are most important and interesting to you, which again is a big hell yes from us. We’re diving headfirst into this platform over the next few weeks to see how it takes shape and who its power users are.

Cohost is an interesting new emerging platform that’s been created by a small team of developers and designers and specifically states it was crafted by people who like to share things on the internet. They pride themselves in no tracking, and in turn no ads, ever (and forever). The content shows up in your feed as it’s posted in chronological order, with no algorithm making decisions. It’s a refreshing take for a platform to get back to the flow of content that we all grew up with and genuinely miss on the larger legacy platforms (ahem, Instagram, we’re talking to you). They believe metrics are ruining our lives, while as social media marketers, we have to play devil's advocate. As human beings though, we love what they’re all about. We’ve been on this platform for a few days now and it feels like there’s still a lot of work happening behind the scenes to turn this into something more magical and useful. We’ll patiently wait. 

Our last platform is a still-in-development channel, WeAre8. We’re continuously checking, daily, to see if the app has been updated to allow us to create an account and get onto the platform as we’re absolutely obsessed with the concept. A social platform that pays it forward and rewards you for taking part. Pulled directly from their site, “WeAre8 is social media with a purpose. We give YOU a share of our revenue for any advertising you choose to watch on the app…money you can keep or pay forward to one of our aligned charity partners like UNICEF, The Starlight Children’s Foundation and The Great Barrier Reef Foundation.” Bookmark this article as we promise to update it the minute we’re signed up and can share more.