Why I'm Shifting My Social Media Presence to the Fediverse and Flipboard

In recent years, I've found myself reevaluating my relationship with traditional social media platforms. What began as a convenient way to stay connected has evolved into a landscape that often feels cluttered, impersonal, and, at times, overwhelming. This realization has led me to gradually shift my social media presence towards alternative platforms like the Fediverse and Flipboard. I'd like to share the reasons behind this transition and how it has positively impacted my digital experience.

The Limitations of Traditional Social Media

Traditional social media platforms have undoubtedly revolutionized the way we communicate. However, they've also introduced challenges that are hard to ignore:

• Algorithm-Driven Content: My feeds are often dominated by content that algorithms think I want to see, rather than what I actually value. This can create echo chambers and limit exposure to diverse perspectives.

• Data Privacy Concerns: The commercialization of personal data has become a significant issue. I'm increasingly uncomfortable with how my information is collected, used, and sometimes shared without explicit consent.

• Ad Overload: The intrusion of advertisements disrupts the user experience. It's become clear that on these platforms, the user is often the product.

Embracing the Fediverse

The Fediverse represents a collection of interconnected but independent servers used for web publishing and social networking. Here's why it's appealed to me:

• Decentralization: Unlike traditional platforms controlled by single corporations, the Fediverse is decentralized. This structure reduces the risk of censorship and monopolistic control over content.

• Enhanced Privacy: Being open-source, many Fediverse platforms prioritize user privacy. I have greater control over my data and how it's shared.

• Community-Centric: The communities are generally more focused and engaged. Interactions feel more meaningful, fostering genuine connections rather than superficial engagements.

The Allure of Flipboard

Flipboard offers a unique approach to content consumption that aligns with my preferences:

• Personalized Content Curation: Flipboard allows me to customize my news and content feed meticulously. I can follow specific topics, publications, and even curate my own magazines.

• Aesthetic Appeal: The visually engaging layout makes reading a pleasure. The magazine-style format is both intuitive and enjoyable.

• Quality Over Quantity: By selecting the sources I trust, I reduce noise and focus on high-quality content that's relevant to me.

Positive Impacts of the Transition

Since making this shift, I've noticed several benefits:

• Improved Mental Well-being: With less exposure to negative content and online conflicts, I've felt a noticeable improvement in my overall mood.

• Enhanced Productivity: Fewer distractions mean I can focus more on what matters—both online and offline.

• Authentic Engagements: Interactions feel more genuine. I'm connecting with communities that share my interests and values.

Looking Ahead

This transition isn't about rejecting traditional social media outright but about seeking platforms that better align with my values and needs. I believe that as users, we have the power to shape our digital experiences. By supporting platforms like the Fediverse and Flipboard, we're advocating for a more open, user-centric internet.

I encourage anyone feeling disillusioned with their current social media experience to explore these alternatives. You might find, as I have, that they offer a refreshing change—a way to reconnect with the true essence of social networking: building meaningful connections and sharing valuable content.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. I'm excited about what the future holds and look forward to connecting with you on these platforms.

• Flipboard: You can find me here

• Mastodon: You can find me here

• Bsky: You can find me here

• Threads: You can find me here

Embracing the Fediverse: A New Frontier for Photographers

In the vast expanse of the digital world, photographers are continually searching for fresh platforms to share their work, connect with like-minded individuals, and explore new frontiers in visual storytelling. While mainstream social media has long been the go-to, there's a growing interest in the Fediverse — a decentralized network of independently owned servers offering various social platforms that interconnect in fascinating ways. But what makes the Fediverse a compelling choice for photographers? Let's explore.

Why Photographers Should Consider the Fediverse

Decentralization and Ownership: Unlike conventional social media platforms, where algorithms dictate visibility and engagement, the Fediverse puts control back into the hands of photographers. This decentralized approach means you have greater ownership over your content and how it's shared, free from the constraints of a single corporate entity.

Community and Collaboration: The Fediverse is renowned for its strong sense of community. For photographers, this means access to a network of creatives eager to collaborate, share insights, and support one another’s growth. It's a refreshing change from the competitive atmosphere that sometimes pervades mainstream platforms.

Niche Audiences and Visibility: With its myriad of specialized platforms, the Fediverse enables photographers to reach niche audiences that appreciate their specific style or genre. This targeted visibility is invaluable in a digital landscape where standing out is increasingly challenging.

Platforms within the Fediverse Ideal for Photographers

Pixelfed: Think of Pixelfed as the Instagram of the Fediverse. Designed specifically for photo sharing, it offers a familiar, yet distinctly community-focused environment for photographers to showcase their work, from breathtaking landscapes to intimate portraits.

Mastodon: While not exclusively photography-oriented, Mastodon's diverse and vibrant communities include many photography enthusiasts and professionals. Utilize hashtags and join photography-focused groups to share your work, engage with feedback, and connect with potential collaborators.

PeerTube: If your photography work extends into videography or you enjoy sharing behind-the-scenes content, PeerTube’s decentralized video hosting platform offers a unique space to share and promote your video content alongside your photographs.

Flipboard: Flipboard is an essential platform for photographers aiming to curate and share visual stories. Create personalized magazines, compile your work and related articles, and reach an audience passionate about photography and visual arts.

How to Jump In

Setting Up Your Presence: Begin by selecting a platform that aligns with your photography style and goals. Create an account and customize your profile to reflect your brand, ensuring it resonates with the platform's community.

Content Strategy: Develop a content strategy that emphasizes authenticity and engagement. Share your creative process, offer insights into your techniques, and post regularly to maintain visibility and interest in your work.

Networking and Engagement: Actively engage with other users by commenting on their work, participating in discussions, and sharing valuable content. Building genuine connections within the Fediverse can lead to collaborative opportunities, feedback, and a supportive community.

Potential Challenges and How to Navigate Them

Navigating Decentralization: The decentralized nature of the Fediverse can be daunting at first. Spend time exploring different platforms and communities to understand where your work fits best and how to engage with your audience effectively.

Building an Audience: Patience is key when building an audience on a new platform. Be consistent in posting high-quality content, engaging with others, and promoting your Fediverse presence on other social media to attract followers.

The Fediverse offers photographers a unique blend of community, control, and creative freedom, standing out as a vibrant alternative to mainstream social media platforms. By embracing this new digital frontier, photographers can discover novel ways to share their work, connect with niche audiences, and participate in a genuinely collaborative community.

Have you ventured into the Fediverse with your photography? Share your experiences and your Fediverse profile in the comments below. Let’s connect and explore this expansive network together, pushing the boundaries of digital photography and community.

Tips for Building Successful Partnerships on Social Media

Over time I have established interesting partnerships with important companies like Ikea, Range Rover, Tesla, Relais & Chateaux, several five-star hotels and top restaurants to mention some, and I am often asked what my “secret” is ….. so I decided to write a short post!.

As social media becomes an increasingly vital aspect of modern business, many companies are seeking partnerships with social media influencers and agencies to help them promote their brand and reach new audiences. If you want to secure interesting partnerships and contracts representing successful companies on social media, consider the following advice:

Define Your Market Position and Brand

Before attracting partnerships and contracts with thriving businesses, you must have a firm grasp of your niche and brand identity. What distinguishes you from other social media influencers and firms? Which subjects or industries are you most enthusiastic about? What values do you want to associate with your brand? By defining your niche and brand identity, you can generate a compelling value proposition to attract social media partner-seeking businesses.

Develop a Powerful Social Media Presence

You must have a robust social media presence to attract partnerships and contracts with prosperous businesses. This involves building a following on social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and producing content that resonates with your target audience. Be consistent with your social media posts, interact with your followers, and demonstrate your expertise and personality. A strong social media presence will increase your appeal to businesses seeking social media partners.

Investigate and Identify Possible Partners

Once you have a solid social media presence and a clear understanding of your niche and brand identity, you can begin researching and identifying potential partners. Consider companies that share your values and interests and a similar target market. Introduce yourself and your company to them via email, social media, or a shared connection. Be sure to emphasise what you can offer and how you can help them achieve their marketing objectives.

Create a Compelling Proposal

When pitching your services to potential partners, it is essential to create a persuasive proposal that demonstrates your expertise and value. This should include information regarding your audience's demographics, engagement rates, and previous partnerships and campaigns. Be specific about how you can assist the organisation in achieving its marketing objectives, and provide examples of how you have done so in the past. A well-written proposal can help you differentiate yourself from other social media partners and increase your chances of securing a contract.

Develop Solid Relationships

In order to secure lucrative partnerships and contracts representing successful companies on social media, developing strong relationships with your partners is essential. This includes being responsive to their needs, delivering on your promises, and communicating openly and transparently. Consider your alliances long-term relationships, and focus on establishing trust and adding value over time. Thus, you can establish yourself as a valuable social media partner and attract future opportunities that are even more exciting.

In conclusion, securing interesting partnerships and contracts on social media while representing successful businesses requires a combination of strategic planning, strong execution, and relationship-building skills. You can increase your chances of success and attract even more exciting opportunities by defining your niche and brand identity, establishing a solid social media presence, researching and identifying potential partners, developing a compelling proposal, and fostering strong relationships with your partners.

Vero True Social: The Good..The Bad and the Ugly!

For the past six months I dedicated most of my Social Media Time to Vero True Social. I have been on this platform since 2018 but never spent much time on it and decided I had to concentrate and give it a real try!

I love the design; I think it has excellent vibes; I think the owner/ founder is great and I like is philosophy…..so I really wanted to make it work for me.

I really needed a new social media home!

Certainly, as a journalist, I found that Vero True Social had some unique features, such as the ability to sort posts into different categories and the "collections" feature which allowed me to group together related content. These features made it easier to organize my content and showcase my work in a more visually appealing way.

However, I also found that the platform had a high turnover rate of accounts opening and closing. This was frustrating because it made it difficult to establish a stable network of followers. As soon as I started to gain traction and gain followers, some of them would close their accounts, which meant that I would have to start from scratch again.

In addition, I found that the rate of followers and engagements on Vero True Social was relatively low compared to other social media platforms. This made gaining visibility for my content and attracting a large audience difficult.

Finally, the lack of analytics on the platform was a significant drawback for me. I rely heavily on data to inform my work, and the absence of this feature made it difficult to understand my audience and measure the success of my content. Without analytics, I could not know which posts were performing well and which were not, making it difficult to optimize my content and reach a wider audience.

While Vero True Social had some unique features, the high turnover rate of accounts, low engagement rates, and absence of analytics ultimately made it an unsustainable platform for me. As such, I've decided to focus my efforts on other social media platforms that provide a more stable and engaging environment for me to connect with my audience and share my work.

Catching the Social Media Wave

For many years I have had what I consider a strong and successful presence on Social Media:

• I have more than 50,000 Followers

• All my Social Media Accounts are Verified

• Most of my sales happen through Social Media in different forms and way

• I am Ambassador for quite a few brands

• I have several Paid Posts/Adverts per month

• My yearly turnover is above 100,000 per year

I am often asked what is the best way to succeed in Social Media so I decided to prepare a few posts .

Getting yourself set up online with social media is now becoming an absolute necessity for any business, whether based in a physical location or explicitly online. This article will show you how to effectively market your company using this new marketing outlet. It's not as hard as you might think it is.

This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission but come at no extra cost to you.

To use social media marketing successfully you must be creative. The same material, sales, offers, and content will ultimately annoy your customer base to the point that they remove you from their page. Keeping things fresh and interesting makes sure they keep coming back for more, which means more sales.

To get a leg up on the social media marketing of competitors, embrace all forms of social media. Many companies assume that social media has matured and think they only need presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to cover their bases. Savvy social media marketers remember that MySpace is still out there. Use it plus rising newcomers like LinkedIn, SlideShare and Google+ to expose yourself where other players are not.

Respond with care to tweets that contain rude or hateful messages. Everything you tweet is a reflection of your business. It may be tempting to shoot back a sarcastic tweet but, that will harm you in the long run. Remain professional and calm when you respond. Remember, the whole world has access to what you tweet.

When deciding how to implement your social media marketing strategies, it is important to take into consideration the nature of your products and services. For example, if purchasing your products is something that most of your customers would prefer to keep private, then do not put Facebook-like buttons right next to the buy buttons! Eventually, someone will click it accidentally and then get angry at your business.

Make sure that your business social media content is fun, interactive, and interesting to read. People who engage in social media sites want to feel compelled to share information that they find. If they share your information, it is to your company's advantage. This is a great way to find new customers and keep the old ones coming back for more.

Keep your Facebook posts regular and consistent. People will look for new content from you when they check in on their Facebook page. If they don't see it regularly, they're likely to forget about you quickly. There are many businesses out there who do post regularly and those businesses are getting the attention of consumers. Make your business one of them.

Run fun and interesting polls on your Facebook page. This is a great way to engage your audience and involve potential consumers. Facebook has an easy to use a feature that can help you with creating polls, so take advantage of it. Polls don't have to be about information directly related to your business. They can be fun, interesting, and involve current events. The point of the poll is to keep consumers interested.

As you can see from this article, while social media can seem intimidating for someone who hasn't spent much time on it, it is really quite simple. As far as marketing goes, social media is actually something that is free and simple enough to do yourself without having to hire a professional.

There are several apps I use on Social Media but two that I use all the time and I would not be able to work without them:

• Social Pilot : It is a social media management tool that helps you manage all of your social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and many more. It is the software I use several times a day for my Social Media.

  Social Pilot helps you schedule posts to your social networks with a quick setup. You can even create recurring posts for certain days or times so that you never have to worry about it again. You can check it out here

• IQHastags: Skyrocket your Instagram profile! The most frequently used tool for Instagram hashtags and analytics. IQhashtags is the latest, complete tool for creating the most effective hashtags on Instagram. Avoid shadowban on Instagram - find banned hashtags that you use, You can check it out here

Social Pilot: n1 software to succeed in Social Media!

Social Pilot is a social media management tool that helps you manage all of your social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and many more. It is the software I use several times a day for my Social Media.

Social Pilot helps you schedule posts to your social networks with quick set-up. You can even create recurring posts for certain days or times so that you never have to worry about it again.

As a beginner, you should not be worried about the technicalities of your social media platform. It's better to concentrate on the campaigns and promotions you want to run.

There are a lot of tools available to help you do this, but few are as effective as Social Pilot. Social Pilot is a social media management platform that helps you automate your social media marketing campaign in a way that lets you monitor and manage them from one centralized dashboard.

Social Pilot offers a variety of features to help beginners start their social media marketing efforts. It has built-in analytics tools, which provide real-time data for monitoring the performance of your posts using Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics.

You can also create custom reports from these data. You can also schedule your posts in advance to maximize their reach and impact among your target audience.

With Social Pilot's bulk posting feature, you can schedule up to 500 posts at a time. Social Pilot also offers an RSS feed importer that imports content from various websites into your newsfeeds for posting purposes. The RSS feed importer also saves you time by allowing you to import multiple RSS feeds at once .

Social Pilot's integration with Buffer allows you to add new content quickly from within Social Pilot or post automatically from RSS feeds using Buffer .

This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission but come at no extra cost to you.

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3 apps for Content Creation

These are my 3 favourite website/apps for Content Creation that I use daily for my Social, Media, Blog, Marketing etc

ALSOASKED.COM

What is it for?

Gain an understanding of how questions are topically grouped to inspire writers, inform content teams and ensure you’re satisfying users and reaching your SEO potential.

What does it do?

AlsoAsked.com will take your search term and show you what other questions “people also ask”. We’ll then dig deeper and show you visually how each level of questions is typically grouped with the next.

Is it the same as AnswerThePublic?

No. AnswerThePublic uses Suggest data, which shows combinations of auto-complete searches. AlsoAsked.com uses "People Also Asked" data, which provides results for more longtail searches and critically, shows the relationships between these topics and questions. We're big fans of AnswerThePublic, it's another tool for a different job.

ANSWERTHEPUBLIC.COM

AnswerThePublic listens into autocomplete data from search engines like Google then quickly cranks out every useful phrase and question people are asking around your keyword.

It’s a goldmine of consumer insight you can use to create fresh, ultra-useful content, products and services. The kind your customers really want.

Contentideagenerator.com

Writing compelling and engaging content on a daily basis can be challenging. Especially when the topic you have to writ about, is kind of boring. To help you to come up with new content ideas related to your topic, I’ve created the Content Idea Generator.

Just enter your subject and this tool generates a list of approximately 100 headlines based on what is hot and trending in Google search and Social Media. After generating the results you can export the full list or extract a custom selection.

Fiverr when you need something DONE!

Since the pandemic started I have been asked several times to share some inside info on Social Media, Marketing, Seo and sales techniques.

I have decided to start a category on my blog post where I will share what I know and what I have learned, what we tend to use on a daily base with my team.

FIVERR

I use Fiverr only as a buyer and not as a freelancer but Fiverr is a good platform for freelancers and buyers, but it's important to rely as well on your own expertise. I tend to use the PRO option to filter or I check and read feedbacks and review of 4 and 5 stars. Having said that many times I have been successfully using newbies!

We used Fiverr as part of our quest to find a Translators, Copywriter, Marketing, SEO, contents writer, Social media or logo design service. We have never been disappointed and we always found super talented and friendly freelancers!

On Fiverr, you can instantly size up a freelancer’s ability to perform. All you have to do is check the seller level that appears near their username. This can save time by helping you quickly eliminate anyone who hasn’t proven themselves on the platform. A seller level is based on delivery time, customer satisfaction, and service quality.

These are the four seller levels:

New Seller – This is where every freelancer starts. It’s a sign that a seller is relatively inexperienced.

Level One Seller – A seller can reach the first level after 60 days, but only if they’ve completed at least 10 gigs with a high level of satisfaction.

Level Two Seller – Only sellers who have been on Fiverr for 120 days and have delivered 50 highly-rated and on-time orders will reach this level.

Top-Rated Seller – If a seller’s Top Rated, it’s an excellent sign that they’ll be reliable. These freelancers have been on Fiverr for at least 180 days, and have delivered over 100 orders (earning at least $20,000), all while keeping their buyers satisfied.

If you need a job done quickly, Fiverr could be the perfect solution. Most freelancers have turnaround times of 48 hours or less. Also, you usually have the option to pay a bit more to get your work done even faster. When you really need to get a project started as soon as possible, you can search for freelancers that are currently online and start the conversation immediately.

EASE OF USE

Fiverr is an incredibly user-friendly platform. The site is super intuitive and offers several great tools to help you weed through the massive pool of talent. Below, you’ll find some of the more notable features that make hiring on Fiverr a breeze.

PRICING

Making an account and posting requests to hire freelancers is completely free. The only time you’ll pay any Fiverr fees is when you buy a service. The charge is pretty reasonable and is based on a percentage of the total job cost. You’ll rarely pay more than a few bucks.

All payments are made upfront and held in escrow. Fiverr will not release funds to your seller until after you’ve approved the work. If the work doesn’t meet your standards, you can give your freelancer the chance to resubmit or cancel the order. And if you run into any problems, you can always turn to Customer Service to help mediate.

Click Here to visit Fiverr

Copyright Infringement on Social Media - Protect and Act fast!

"Copyright exists once you have an original work of authorship fixed in any tangible medium," says Ruth Carter, an internet lawyer who is an authority on online copyright law involving blog posts, image usage and trademarks as well Social media like Instagram and Facebook.

I had a busy week dealing with an image of High Water in Venice that was circulating on the internet with about 100,000 likes in total.

Ryan Vacca a professor and a member of the school’s Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property said that the goal of copyright law is to protect original creative expression and that images easily fall under this protection.

"For most pieces of creative work, it easily satisfies the minimally creative standard in – assuming they didn't rip it off from somebody else – the original creator is going to have some copyright protection in that image," he said.

If you download an image and post it, whether it be on your site, in a blog post, or on social media, you're likely committing copyright infringement. Copying any images or user-generated content without the creator's permission can constitute infringement, even if you link back to their website or original post.

One of my images was circulating on Social Media with a different author name

1) I was tipped by one of my followers that one of my images was circulating on Social Media not with my name but a different one

2) I did several searches and posted for info on my channels and found more than 55 infringements.

3) I discovered it originated from a lady that saw the photograph on a UK newspaper, downloaded it, cropped, applied several filters and posted with her name. On her post she was already challenged by one of my followers asking if she was the photographer, she openly said no. She replied to my message straight away, and she apologised, told me she wanted to do something for Venice. I checked her profile, and she has no connection with photography, she had no photographs that could have been stolen. I decided to believe her and let her off the hook.

4) I wrote to all the perpetrators, with a formal Take Down Notice, giving them 4 hours to correct the situation and informing that an invoice was on its way.

5) Few owner or management of sites and channels contacted me promptly. With all of them I agreed to amend the original post, or rewrite it with the correct credits, These channels had in between 5000 to 35000 likes, and I demanded and obtained to do five posts during the year promoting some of my Venice activities. They all agreed. I did not charge any fee,

6) With some of the perpetrators, I decided for a reduced fee in exchange for a quick and prompt payment. I sent a total of 6 invoices, including two Italian celebrities that had used my image. I charged between 350 Euro and 1500 for a total of 3400 Euro. I gave them five days to send the payment before legal action and I have already received two payments.

7) I had no reply from one of them so I decided to file a Copyright complaint form on Instagram. It was easy and fast. After a few hours, I got a reply back, and as requested they removed my image.

If you are writing an email an idea of text can be

Your invoice should amount to your usual fees for such usage, plus a margin for ‘damages’. The latter is optional though, and remember that the more you charge, the less likely it is you’ll get the matter settled quickly. You can realistically add a margin of anything up to 50%. If you don’t know what the standard usage fee should be, head over to Alamy.com and search for any Rights Managed image. Click the calculator, and plug in the details of the use in question – you’ll then be given an industry standard price you can quote.

I tend to ask for the lowest fee and offer a 50% discount if paid promptly!

When all started, I knew that the nearly 50 cases I found were only the tip of the iceberg I did not want to waste my time or get too upset, I decided to see it as a commercial opportunity, so decided not to go after the private individuals, small groups etc but only celebs or companies. I opted for a robust approach and very fast action. I worked on hit 16h non stop.

For two days, I concentrated on this problem but overall, a positive experience that generated some extra cash!

NOTE The above image was taken from a website of a UK newspaper, and not from my site,. I am very careful on how I present and show my images

What to do to protect your images 5 STEPS I suggest

1 Add watermarks to your photos

This is the most obvious way to deter casual image theft. Adding a small section of text, or a logo, to the corner of a photo is a great way to stamp ownership onto your photos.

2. Never share a high-resolution file

Hopefully, you are already aware of this, but uploading high-resolution files online to display is a very bad idea. Should someone get hold of the high-resolution file, they can pretty much do what they want with it. It also makes it harder to prove you’re the original photographer, as they have the same file that you’d be using to prove you took the photo.

3. Compress photos you upload

Following on from the previous step, make sure that you compress photos you upload. Aside from the actual dimensions of the image, you can reduce the quality of the photo.

In Photoshop, head to the “File > Export” menu. You can select “Save for Web…” and comfortably export a photo at 60% JPEG quality. This still looks really good, and you can see in the preview that there’s not much difference between that and 90%. It creates smaller, more compressed files that further reduce what someone could do with your image should they get hold of it..

4. Add your copyright to the metadata

You can actually embed your copyright information straight into a JPEG file. You do this by modifying the metadata (some details and/or instructions that can be extracted from a file) using a photo-editing program.

You can do this in Photoshop by navigating to “File > File Info…” and adjusting it there.

5) Use Smartframe Technology

I use Smartframe technology and services to protect and share images. SmartFrame is the ultimate platform for optimizing, securing and presenting your online images, with enhanced tracking and monetization tools. Check here https://smartframe.io/

Vero the new app, why and how to use it

Vero, a photo-sharing app that launched in 2015, is the latest app to benefit from ongoing frustration with Facebook and Instagram's hated algorithm not to mention recent uselessness of Twitter .

A week ago, Vero was ranked so low it didn't even appear in the App Store's top 1,00 apps; today it's the most popular app both on the App Store and Google Play Store. It's gotten so popular that the app's servers have been overloaded, with many users unable to post or even sign up for an account. 

The creators and owner of the app are very clear and upfront it will be a pay as you go app. I like the idea and I never believed in freebies and if is free is too good to be true.

I like as well the concept no algorithms no advertising. In exchange of a fee?? Why not!

Here is a summary of the manifesto: Vero is unhappy with the way social media has become about algorithms and ads, and they’re trying to create a more “natural” way of sharing things. In practice, that means no ads, ever (the service will be funded in part by an annual subscription model they’ll introduce soon, and in part by Vero receiving a commission on sales made through the platform).

It also means users have more control over who sees their posts: the news feed is chronological rather than thrown together by an algorithm, and users decide whether each post they make will be broadcast to close friends only, friends only, friends and acquaintances, or anyone who chooses to follow them.

In its manifesto, Vero said it does not incorporate advertising into its revenue model, but will instead begin charging users for a subscription after 1 million free users have joined the service.

“As a subscription-based service, our users are our customers, not the product we sell to advertisers.”

Vero’s been variously described as “the new Facebook” and “the new Instagram”, but in reality, it’s actually more like a combination of both

It’s similar to Facebook in that you can have friends as well as followers, divided into acquaintances, friends and close friends.  You can use it to chat with people, and you can post a range of content like links, text posts, photos, film recommendations etc.  It’s similar to Instagram in that you can post nice looking photos. There are no stories, it is good for me...I never used them anyway.

Arguably, its biggest selling point is that it has a chronological feed, allowing users to see everything. Companies can’t pay to boost posts because there is no algorithm that highlights certain posts over others, meaning – provided you scroll far enough down – you won’t miss any of your friends’ images.

Another interesting feature is the fact that, unlike Instagram, users aren’t required to crop their images: full-sized photos can be uploaded and displayed in their original ratio.

This business model stands in stark contrast to other apps like Facebook, which has become very advertising heavy. Without money from advertising, Vero has admitted it will eventually charge users to sign up for the app, however, the first million users will receive free access for life.

I like very much the modern design the easiness in creating an account and in how to use it.

Of course, at the moment it is a bit of an empty place...but was exactly the same on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram! I do not mind to try a new medium in the hope it will work

I am on vero as marco secchi

How to use Vero:

Like most social media apps, you first have to sign up with your phone number and email address after you get Vero. By entering your phone number, you can let Vero access your contacts to see which friends are also on the app. You can also invite your contacts to make a Vero account. This step is also skippable, and you can connect with friends later.

Once you’re all signed up, you officially have a Vero account. Now you can add a bio and avatar to your profile page.

Vero will then show you its “Featured Content” page. Similar to Instagram’s Explore page, it’s where you can check out posts from verified Vero users.

When you tap “Done” in the upper right-hand corner, you’re brought to the main page — your Vero feed. The app will then direct you to share your first post.

Here is where the world opens up. You can post a myriad of different things to your Vero feed. Search for music (they literally have it all), movies (seriously, they have every movie ever), books (yeah, all the books), places, links, and finally photos and videos.

Still kind of afraid of the great beyond, we decided to keep things simple with a photo post.

The Vero photo editing process is almost identical to Instagram’s. Your filters and simple editing tools are cleanly displayed below your photo. You’ll still be able to pre-edit in another app and then upload from your library, too, if you like to have a bit more variety in your editing options.

Tap “Done,” add a caption, tag a location if you like, and then choose who’s able to see your post. When adding friends and followers in Vero, you’re able to categorize them into “close friends,” “friends,” and “acquaintances,” thus letting you control how far you want each post to reach.