LONGECITY

Bruce has suggested re-vitalizing our efforts on other platforms, including social media.

We have done this in the past, with limited success.

If I had to pinpoint the reasons for lack of success, I would say it had to do with:

1. Lack of time/commitment. A presence on any social media platform requires regular "upkeep". Some platforms thrive on quantity of content, others on quality. Whatever the case, it works best if there is a point person, who can manage the pages on a regular basis.

2. Lack of expertise with the platforms. Different platforms thrive on different forms of content. In the past, we mainly just posted updates/links/simple text on alternative platforms.

3. Not keeping track of metrics and traffic driven to LongeCity.org.

#3 is the ultimate goal. We want to drive engagement and traffic to the LongeCity website. Here is where we can manage the organization most effectively. Here is where we have more control over content/image/projects. We don't want to allow LongeCity's best engagement/discussions to shift to a different platform. Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube have recently been aggressively censoring content for seemingly arbitrary reasons. As an example, Google is already demonetizing some LongeCity discussions revolving around sexual health. LongeCity is a community of mostly open-thinkers who are not afraid to discuss alternative viewpoints. 

The well-known platforms are obvious places to attempt more engagement because of their large user-bases, but they do have the most strict rules and arbitrary/confusing rule enforcement at times. I would not want to neglect other emerging platforms. It might be easier to gain attention on emerging platforms because there is less competition.

All good points, Mind.

I'd be happy to maintain socials in a way that benefits LongeCity. 

At minimum, socials could be a channel to distribute newsletter + podcast content. 

In addition to the email newsletter, we could have Twitter, Facebook, Youtube(for podcasts), Instagram, Reddit, Gab.ai and LinkedIn updates. 

Many people have migrated away from email for updates-newsletter... so having these socials as a way to engage seems optimal.

Any other input?

Bruce has been given the go-ahead to start managing the LongeCity presence on other platforms. If anyone has good tips or tricks for maximizing LongeCity influence and visibility on some of these other platforms, please let us know.

So I'm guessing Longecity is feeling the effects of Google's punitive algorithm changes over the past year... Many big websites have been hit by Google's Core updates, particularly in the Health sector. I'm trying to recover the traffic I lost, which destroyed my income. 

Focusing away from Google is definitely a good idea, and you're right, YouTube is also going in the same direction. They are censoring a lot of alternative health channels. They're not just picking on health though, they are censoring independent news channels in favor on MSN.

Facebook and Reddit are probably your best bets imo.

Although, even with Facebook, users are shown less from pages now and more friends friends and family. Linking out is generally demoted in the news feed. Rather than posts appearing chronologically, posts are now shown high in the news feed only if there is good user engagement, especially comments. Early interaction is super important. 

As I suggested before, it might be worth restructuring and developing blog type content from expert authors. This can be from people with formal qualifications or just experience, because Google values both.

Google relies highly on E-A-T:  https://www.mariehaynes.com/eat/  (highly suggest you read that and Google's Quality Rater Guidelines.)

The problem with forum content is that  a) it's normally very easy to outrank in the SERPs b) users can show expertise on a given subject, but Google wants credentials now more than ever. Hard to show on a forum where people are giving medical/health advice.

However, there are websites out there which have PhD's writing the content and they've lost 90% of their traffic over the past year. I won't name websites openly on here, but some of them will be familiar to users here.

The traffic appears to be going to websites such as Healthline, WebMD. Generally, Google will err on the on the side of caution and show these mainstream and trusted sites even over content that is far more relevant to the search query. 

If you ever do think about restructuring, it's important to get a good web developer to deal with redirects and such to keep the link equity you've built up.

Aside from trying other platforms, let's also hope that DDG, Bing or some other search engine which are not censoring/penalizing sites will grow. To be honest with you, finding information I want on Google is now becoming harder than ever.