Recently there has been a mass exodus of conservatives from social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Conservatives are signing up for alternatives like Parler and MeWe.

If your audience includes conservative readers, how should you navigate this splintering of social media? 

It’s a potentially dicey subject. 

As authors, we must react to the world as it is and not as we wish it would be. Authors who live in mental fantasy lands don’t sell books. I have discussed the splintering of our society from time to time, and it is tricky for me to navigate. Novel Marketing listeners (and patrons!) hail from both extremes of the political spectrum. We also have listeners who live in the “Don’t talk to me about politics” camp. 

But listeners have repeatedly asked for my opinion, so I feel like I need to chime in. 

What is happening?

Social networking sites, and other platforms like MailChimp, have expanded their missions. While they used to function as platforms where people could communicate and connect, they are now functioning as gatekeepers, monitoring what their users can and should say. They are taking more responsibility for what is posted and exerting more control. 

If you ask someone on the left, they will tell you these platforms are fighting misinformation. If you ask someone on the right, they will tell you they are censoring speech. The left calls them “fact-checkers,” the right calls them “censors,” but whatever you call them, someone at the platform determines what users can say and to whom. 

For instance, last week, MailChimp banned a Tea Party group from using its email service because they were hosting a peaceful political rally. In fact, MailChimp has been booting a lot of conservatives from its platform recently. If you are a conservative and you want to stick with MailChimp, I recommend downloading your email list as a CSV file every week, just in case they kick you off. I’d also encourage you to listen to my episode on How to Pick the Right Email Marketing Service for You.

Even if you’re not a conservative, you may still want to move away from MailChimp. MailerLite (Affiliate Link) is cheaper, and ConvertKit (Affiliate Link) is a lot easier to use. 

As for Facebook and Twitter, you can watch the senate hearing about censorship here if you’d like. I won’t rehash that because I expect most of you already have a strong opinion.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter how you feel. It matters how your readers feel.