Hive Social or Mastodon? 2 new exciting platforms to grow your stream!

Should you have a Hive Social or a Mastodon account for your stream?

Social media platforms like Hive Social & Mastodon are important tools for streamers to increase their viewers and followers. They can use it to promote their channel and engage with their followers. And they can also use these channels to increase their revenue. 

Outside Facebook, Twitter is one of the more popular websites for streamers because it allows them to easily engage and interact with their fans outside the stream. It’s also one of those platforms where you can properly curate your account based on your interests – goodbye, grandma, and other relatives who share nothing but clickbait! 

Moreover, Twitter has a “live” function where you can simultaneously stream with other platforms. This helps you reach a ton more potential viewers who aren’t on Twitch or anywhere else. 

Anyway, given the recent hullabaloo surrounding Twitter, a lot of users are jumping ships and looking for an alternative. And in recent weeks, a Hive Social – a platform founded by a college student took waves. As of writing, they now have more than 1.5 million active users – having 400,000++ signups coming from the last week or so. 

So, what’s all the fuss about this new platform, and should you jump on the trend? 

 

What is Hive Social? 

Hive Social is a 3-year-old social media platform created by a college student – Kassandra Pop. During her interviews, Kassandra said that she created the platform because she was getting tired of Instagram and Twitter’s algorithm and ad-heavy experience. She wanted to create a platform that’s more enjoyable to the end-user – a place where they can interact and engage with their friends, share their interests and hobbies, and showcase their personality. 

What came out from her was a mashup of Instagram, Twitter, and MySpace. 

Similar to most social media sites, users need to register for Hive Social with their personal information. Then, they can customize their profiles by adding their preferred pronouns and zodiac signs. Aside from that, users can also customize their profile’s color schemes to fit their personalities. 

A throwback feature of Hive Social is being able to put music on your profile – similar to MySpace and Friendster. 

Now in terms of scrolling through your feed and content, the experience is closer to Instagram, than Twitter. The platform has a lot of pictures, videos, and GIFs which are arranged chronologically. This feature can be used to share your stream’s highlights and whatnot. Unfortunately, there’s no live stream feature at the moment. 

One of the things the platform boasts is its chronological feed. This means you get to see posts from your friends based on when they posted them – much like the old days of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This means you’re more likely to see all the posts of your friends since there’s no algorithm gatekeeping you. It’s also good for you as a streamer since your fans will be able to see your content in real-time. 

Aside from having a feed for your besties, Hive Social also provides you with a Discover feature where you can check out trending content based on your interests. As a streamer, this is a great feature that can help you reach potential viewers.  

Unfortunately, Hive Social is currently running exclusively on a mobile app on iOS, which makes it very limiting since android and desktop users don’t have access to the platform yet. 

What is Mastodon? 

Another social media alternative that gained a lot of traction from the ruckus surrounding Twitter is Mastodon. However, unlike Hive Social, Mastodon is a relatively older social media platform. It was created and released in 2016 by Eugen Rochko.

In some ways, Mastodon is like Twitter because it’s a text-heavy and sort of chat-based platform. However, in our opinion, it’s closer to social media apps like Reddit and Discord because of how it runs. 

Basically, Mastodon is free and open-source software that allows its users to microblog. However, its main difference with Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram is that instead of having a feed, you get different communities called “Instances”.

Instances are independent “social platforms” where people of similar interests can interact. Each Instance has its code of conduct, terms of service, privacy policy, moderators, etc. In a nutshell, Instances are like Subreddits or Rooms – where people can interact with each other. The key difference is that you’ll have a distinct account for each Instance you’ll join. 

 

Hive Social vs. Mastodon 

Since a lot of users are leaving Twitter, content creators and streamers are looking for the next big platform, trying to be one of the pioneers. 

Being a pioneer on a social media platform means it’s easier for you to build an audience since you already have a leg up on your competitors. Plus, you can be one of the few people who might get preferential treatment. 

In our honest opinion, we think streamers would be better off trying Mastodon as their next social media platform since it’s been around for longer. Meaning, Mastodon is more stable and has stronger backend support to handle large traffic volumes. Plus, Mastodon has more active users as of writing – 7,000,000 users vs. Hive’s 1,500,000. 

But the biggest advantage of Mastodon is the Instances feature since it allows you to engage with people who have the same interests as you – same games, same platforms, etc. This means you can engage more potential viewers in these Instances versus having a generic feed. 

However, we think Hive Social is a wildcard too in terms of brand growth. Their features are quite appealing and can help content creators and streamers grow if they can perfect their user experience and backend stability. 

One of the promising features of Hive Social that we’re watching is their discover feed. As we’ve seen on Facebook, Instagram, and even Twitter the discover feed is one of the best sources of new traffic for streamers. 

 

Should I start an account now? 

Creating an account on these platforms can bring benefits to your stream since you can reach new viewers with limited competition. However, focusing on growing on these platforms might be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you might find the right audience and drive a lot of high-quality traffic. But on the other, your potential viewers might still be stuck on older social media platforms. 

If you make an account on these platforms, treat them as secondary platforms, more like a wildcard investment. Continue focusing on growing your social media presence on more stable platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and Twitch – then repost your content on these pages. 

That way, you’re getting the best of both worlds. If you’re keen on growing your audience, check out this comprehensive article we wrote on: How to get more viewers on your stream: 11 actionable strategies to make your stream awesome