The Pub and The Library: Using Twitter and Mastodon Together (Without Losing Your Mind)

Right, so you’ve been on Twitter for years. You know the game. You understand the chaos. And now someone’s told you about Mastodon and you’re wondering if you need to care.

Short answer: yes, but not for the reasons you think.

I’ve been using Twitter for 15 years and Mastodon for about one. And here’s the thing nobody tells you… they’re not competitors. They’re completely different animals. Treating them the same is like bringing a library book to the pub and wondering why nobody wants to discuss it.

Let me explain.

What Mastodon Actually Is (And Why It Confused Everyone)

When people fled Twitter during the Musk acquisition chaos, loads of them tried Mastodon, got confused, and left. The platform gained nearly half a million users overnight, then watched most of them disappear again.

Why? Because everyone expected “Twitter but nicer.”

What they got was something fundamentally different.

Mastodon is decentralised. That’s not marketing fluff… it actually matters. Instead of one massive platform controlled by one company, it’s thousands of independent servers (called “instances”) that all talk to each other. You pick an instance, join it, and suddenly you can interact with people on every other instance.

Think of it like email. You might have a Gmail account, your mate might use Outlook, but you can still email each other. Same principle.

The Traffic Reality (Let’s Be Honest Here)

Before we get romantic about either platform, let’s look at the brutal numbers.

Twitter/X in 2025:

Your links get buried unless you’re paying for Premium
Non-Premium accounts posting links? Zero median engagement since March 2025. Not “less”… zero.
Referral traffic down 24% between 2022 and 2023, and it’s only gotten worse
By late 2024, X was driving just 0.6% of publisher traffic

Mastodon in 2025:

About 1.5 million active users (compared to Twitter’s hundreds of millions)
For actual traffic? One blogger reported 10% of their social traffic from Mastodon versus 61% from Bluesky
Posts can go “viral” with 50-100 likes (yes, really)
Traffic’s there, but it’s tiny compared to what you’re used to

So if you’re chasing massive traffic numbers, neither platform is giving you what Twitter did in 2018. Those days are gone. Accept it. Mourn if you must. Move on.

But here’s where it gets interesting…

Why They’re Not the Same Thing At All

Twitter is a pub. It’s loud, chaotic, immediate. Ideas spread fast. Arguments happen faster. You show up, you chat, someone buys a round, and by closing time you’ve either made a friend or started a fight. The bartender (algorithm) decides who gets heard, and lately he’s been pretty selective about it.

Mastodon is a library. It’s quieter, more intentional, community-driven. There’s no algorithm shoving content at you. Everything’s chronological. And crucially… hashtags actually matter.

On Twitter, hashtags are decorative. Nice to have, sometimes useful, mostly ignored by the algorithm.

On Mastodon, hashtags are the only way people who don’t follow you can find your posts. They’re not optional. They’re the filing system. Without them, you’re basically posting into the void.

The Boost System (Or: Why Mastodon Users Don’t Dunk On Each Other)

Here’s something brilliant about Mastodon that Twitter got catastrophically wrong.

On Twitter, you can quote tweet. You can take someone’s bad take, add your own snarky comment, and send your followers to mock them. It’s basically weaponised sharing. Half of Twitter is people quote tweeting stuff they hate just to show everyone how wrong it is.

Mastodon doesn’t let you do that. Well, not easily. (They added quote posts in late 2025, but the culture hasn’t shifted much.)

What you get instead is “boosts”… which are just retweets without commentary. You share something or you don’t. But you can’t share it and dunk on it simultaneously.

The result? People actually think before boosting. Because boosting something you disagree with just gives it more exposure. There’s no performative outrage. No dunking for likes. No armies of followers descending on someone for a bad take.

It’s… weirdly civil.

How to Actually Use Both (The Strategy Nobody’s Teaching)

Right, so you’re not abandoning Twitter. You’ve got 15 years of connections there. But you’re curious about Mastodon. Here’s how to use them together without driving yourself mad.

Twitter Strategy: The Pub Approach

Post your best thinking natively. Don’t save insights for elsewhere and then try to link to them. Give your best stuff away right there in the timeline.
Build engagement first, link second. If you must share a link, post your take first. Get conversation going. Drop the link in a reply where the algorithm won’t strangle it.
Pay for Premium if you’re serious. I hate it too. But it’s the price of entry now. Your links won’t get buried as badly, and your posts get better distribution.
Focus on relationships over reach. 100 people who actually know you beat 10,000 who scroll past without thinking.

Mastodon Strategy: The Library Approach

Use hashtags properly. 2-3 relevant ones per post. Use CamelCase (like #SocialMedia, not #social media, because spaces break tags). This is not optional.
Join the right instance. Don’t just default to mastodon.social (though that’s fine for starting). Find an instance that matches your interests. There are instances for writers, tech people, academics, artists… pick one where you’ll actually want to read the local timeline.
Engage with your instance’s local feed. This is your neighbourhood. These are the people on your server. Say hello. Have conversations. Build community. It’s not just about broadcasting.
Use content warnings appropriately. Mastodon culture is big on this. Discussing politics? Use a content warning with #Politics in the header. Spoilers for a TV show? Same thing. It’s considered polite.
Feature hashtags on your profile. You can feature up to 5 hashtags that you use often. They’ll appear on your profile with usage stats. It helps people find you.
Cross-post strategically, not automatically. Don’t just auto-post everything from Twitter to Mastodon. The cultures are different. What works in the pub doesn’t always work in the library.

The Real Advantages of Using Both

Twitter gives you:

Immediacy and real-time discourse
The ability to connect with anyone, instantly
A larger audience (even if getting their attention is harder)
Industry connections and networking opportunities
The occasional viral moment (if you’re lucky and the algorithm’s feeling generous)

Mastodon gives you:

Actual chronological timelines (radical concept, I know)
No ads, no algorithmic manipulation
Communities that actually feel like communities
Higher engagement rates (even if absolute numbers are smaller)
Control over your own data and experience
The ability to move servers if you don’t like the moderation

Using both gives you:

Hedged bets (when Twitter inevitably does something stupid again)
Different audiences with different needs
Practice in community-building versus performance
A refuge when the pub gets too rowdy
Options

What Actually Works in Practice

After a year on both, here’s what I’ve learned:

For breaking news or hot takes: Twitter. The immediacy can’t be beaten, even with all its flaws.

For thoughtful discourse: Mastodon. The lack of viral dynamics means conversations stay conversations instead of becoming pile-ons.

For building an audience quickly: Still Twitter, unfortunately. The numbers are just bigger.

For building a real community: Mastodon. Smaller, yes, but more genuine.

For driving traffic: Both are struggling compared to the old days, but Twitter still has the edge in raw numbers. Mastodon traffic is smaller but often higher quality.

For your sanity: Honestly? Mastodon. The absence of algorithmic rage-farming is remarkably peaceful.

The Hashtag Game on Mastodon

Since hashtags are so crucial on Mastodon, let me give you the actual playbook:

Essential hashtags for newbies:

#Introduction (your first post introducing yourself… people actively browse this to find new accounts)
#AskFedi (when you need help or want to ask the community something)

Discovery hashtags by field:

Writers: #WritingCommunity, #AmWriting
Tech: #OpenSource, #Linux, #Programming
Academics: #AcademicMastodon, #Research
General: #Blog, #Newsletter, #ContentCreator

The rules:

3-5 hashtags maximum (more looks spammy)
Always use CamelCase for accessibility
Put them in your post naturally, not in a pile at the end
Actually follow hashtags that interest you (you can do this!)
Don’t repeat the exact same hashtags on every post

The Uncomfortable Truths

Let’s not romanticise either platform. Both have significant drawbacks.

Twitter’s problems:

The algorithm’s hostile to links
It’s increasingly pay-to-play
The owner’s… well, let’s say “unpredictable”
Engagement’s increasingly driven by outrage
Your timeline is what someone else thinks you should see

Mastodon’s problems:

Tiny compared to Twitter (about 1.5 million active users)
Requires more effort to find your people
Instance drama is real (servers can shut down, moderators can be inconsistent)
The learning curve puts people off
Traffic numbers are genuinely small

Neither is perfect. Neither is going to give you 2018 Twitter back. That’s gone.

The Verdict (If You’re Forcing Me to Pick)

Don’t pick.

Use both. But use them differently.

Twitter’s where you go for quick hits, real-time reactions, and staying connected to the broader conversation (even if it’s increasingly algorithmic nonsense). It’s the pub. You don’t live there, but you pop in regularly.

Mastodon’s where you go to actually build something. Communities. Conversations. Connections that aren’t based on who can shout loudest. It’s the library. You might spend more time there than you expected, once you find your section.

And here’s the thing… having both is actually liberating. When Twitter’s algorithm is being rubbish, you’ve got Mastodon. When Mastodon feels too quiet, you’ve got Twitter. When one platform does something stupid (and they will), you’re not held hostage.

How to Start (If You’re Actually Going to Try This)

Keep your Twitter account. Don’t abandon 15 years of connections. Just… adjust your expectations about what it can do.
Sign up for Mastodon. Pick mastodon.social to start (it’s easy), or browse joinmastodon.org for other instances.
Use your first week to explore. Check out the local timeline. Search hashtags in your field. Follow interesting people. Don’t expect it to feel like Twitter immediately.
Post an #Introduction. Tell people who you are, what you do, what you’re interested in. Use hashtags. Pin it to your profile.
Give it a proper month. Mastodon feels weird at first if you’re used to Twitter. The lack of algorithm feels like emptiness. It’s not. It’s just different.
Cross-post thoughtfully. Share the same content to both if it makes sense, but adapt it. Twitter needs snark. Mastodon needs substance. They’re different rooms, different conversations.

The Bottom Line

After 15 years on Twitter and one year on Mastodon, I’m not leaving either. But I use them completely differently now.

Twitter’s where I go when I want to feel plugged into the discourse, for better or worse. It’s messy, frustrating, occasionally brilliant, and increasingly expensive if you want anyone to actually see what you post.

Mastodon’s where I go when I want to have actual conversations with actual humans about things that matter. It’s smaller, slower, more intentional, and genuinely feels like a community rather than a content distribution system.

The traffic from both is smaller than it used to be. That’s just reality in 2025. But the quality of the traffic? The people who actually read what you write? Those are still there, on both platforms, if you know how to find them.

The pub’s still open. The library’s still there. You’re allowed to use both.

Just… maybe stop expecting either one to be what Twitter was in 2018. That world’s gone. These are the options we’ve got now.

Make them work for you.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to start an argument about whether GIFs are pronounced with a hard or soft G. That’s what Twitter’s really for. Mastodon will give me a thoughtful, well-researched answer with sources. Twitter will call me an idiot. Both are valid.

Until Next Time