POSSE: Put Social Media Where it Belongs (Second)

There are plenty of problems and things to worry about with Facebook, Twitter, and any other social media sites you may use. Data privacy, addictive behaviors, concentration of power, the list goes on and on.

On the other hand, it’s hard to resist the popular sites where all the users are. For organizers and activists like us in the Indivisible movement, it’s even more important to be where all the users are. But accepting the necessity of posting to social media doesn’t mean you have to depend completely on those services.

One approach, which has been around for years but is still relevant today, is called “POSSE”, defined by its proponents like this:

POSSE is an abbreviation for Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere, a content publishing model that starts with posting content on your own domain first, then syndicating out copies to 3rd party services with links back to the original on your site.

The idea is simply that you should have your own independent web site (hosted here on Indivisible.blue, for example), and it’s the primary source. It’s fully under your control in terms of ownership and content, and it’s on the “open web”, that doesn’t require anyone to have a login to anything. Links to items on your site – events, news, calls to action, the Trump Outrage Du Jour, kitten pictures, whatever – can then be shared on whatever Facebook page, Twitter feed, or Medium thing you want.

This cross-posting can be accomplished in a number of ways. WordPress and Jetpack provide connection to the primary sites, and the indie-web network Micro.blog also provides syndication (as well as simple, inexpensive hosting).

Own and control your content, even if you still feed it to the social media beasts. If you have questions or suggestions on this, don’t hesitate to let me know.