Since the blockage of #Facebook in Uganda by President Museveni NRM led government, Ugandans started joining its immediate alternative #Twitter and now Elon Musk acquired Twitter, people are turning to other alternatives — such as Afripo among others for business connections, news, and industry information.
Twitter is in the headlines with stories about its loss of advertisers, fake news posts, and many personnel changes — and the uncertainty is prompting people to explore other social media platforms.
Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover could change business accounts with updates to advertising and security. Musk fired top executives and changed the platform’s verification process with Twitter Blue, which led to creating of fake accounts instead of preventing them. In November 2022, someone opened a fake Eli Lilly account with the blue check mark and tweeted that insulin shots were now free, causing the company to lose possibly $15 billion at the time of the tweet.
As people continue to watch and see what happens to Twitter, there are other reliable ways to get news — including checking reliable news websites such as the Daily Monitor, chimpreports ,Whisper Eye and Reuters. People can also enable an RSS feed on news websites by clicking on the RSS icon to receive the latest news or download an RSS reader such as Feedly to choose updates from selected sources.
To create connections, users are looking for other ways to promote their businesses on social media. Some social media platforms have a reputation as being biased and don’t monitor users’ posted information, attributing it to free speech. However, there are other social media options to create business connections and reach new consumers.
1. AFRIPO
Afripo.com might not look like Twitter or Facebook, as it is not a single server, but this platform can help users create social and professional accounts to enable conversations and stay up to date on the latest news. Afripo started as a method for people to message and share inspirational stories is expanded to more topic areas.
There are no public spaces on Afripo, but people can now share stories in form of text, and communicate with each other well.
2. Clubhouse
The clubhouse is an audio-only app where people talk to each other in a live podcast forum. When someone is speaking, their profile icon lights up.
After users join Clubhouse, they can listen to a variety of topics, including sports, business, finance, literature and parenting. Unlike Twitter, there are no videos, images or text posts — only profile photos and voices.
The conversations can be small, with a few people, or thousands of people can listen in like a conference. These conversations are unfiltered and without time limits to encourage discussion.
There are no ads on Clubhouse. However, users can use Clubhouse to expand business connections. Users can schedule an event by doing the following:
- Select Create a Room at the bottom of the feed.
- Allow access to everyone for the event or select attendees by sending them the link.
- Enable chat during the event and offer replays.
Room titles and topics are searchable for other Clubhouse users.
3. CounterSocial
CounterSocial states there are no ads, trolls, fake news or abuse on their platform. This social media platform is not available everywhere. Blocked countries include China, Iran and Russia, among others.
CounterSocial offers news, live streaming and the ability to create communities. Users determine the content on CounterSocial. They can also create columns on its user interface to sort posts by topics, hashtags, and users. Users can share, like and comment on posts. A video chat feature is also included.
3. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is known for being a professional networking site, but the platform has added new social media features in the past couple of years, including streaming and a news feed.
Users can post videos, links, updates and pictures on LinkedIn much like they can on Twitter. The platform also offers LinkedIn Learning for users to develop new job skills, and users can search and apply for job openings.
4. Reddit
Reddit might not be a new alternative, but it offers a large collection of forums on various topics. These small community forums are known as subreddits and can be used to share and comment. Registered users can also vote on comments to help them gain or lose momentum.
Subreddits cover a variety of topics, including hobbies, entertainment, health, news and business. Anyone can read the information on Reddit, but to comment, interact or create a subreddit, they need to register.
Reddit has a front page dividing content into different tabs. The default tab is called Hot, which shows the submissions with the highest scores — determined by registered users’ upvotes and downvotes. Users can upvote — or press the up arrow — if they think a post positively contributes to the community. Users can also select the down arrow on posts they find irrelevant and unhelpful.
Registered users can see the Best tab, which also features the most-upvoted posts from subreddits. Reddit also factors in the user’s viewed subreddits to make it more personalized for those who register on the site. The front page also features submissions based on algorithms.
Other tabs include Rising for new posts with upvotes, and Controversial, which determines which posts have conflicting opinions based on the relative number of downvotes and upvotes.
