You guys. I love Ello.
It’s not the minimalist design or simplicity of use.
It’s not even the delicious writing experience of simple text on a white background.
It’s the freedom. And the fact that it’s going to be GREAT for writers of all kinds.
Under Pressure
I joined Twitter in the early days — before the ads, before the images, before the videos. Before your number of followers became entwined with your professional reputation. Before it became an integral part of your “personal brand.”
I’m not saying that to sound like some kind of social media hipster, because I’m certainly not that.
But before the corporations swept in, before the pressure to contribute to Twitter as a viable marketing platform grew, Twitter was this neat little space where you could create artistic little microposts and connect with folks who were doing the same.
I loved it. Some of my best writing snippets came out of my early Twitter days.
But now, we give our clients a laundry list of Best Practices:
- Don’t tweet out a link that won’t pull in an image.
- And make sure it’s an eye-catching and engaging image.
- And make sure you’re tweeting at the optimal time for your audience.
- And make sure you’re tweeting at least X times a day so you don’t lose your followers.
- And make sure you’re reusing your content strategically, on a predetermined social media posting calendar.
- And…
It’s a lot of pressure. Pressure creates anxiety. And so Twitter has gone from a place I go to escape to a place I want to escape.
Escape to Ello.
Ello feels to me now a lot like Old Twitter used to. I have minimal followers. I can be creative. I can say the weird things that make me me. I don’t have to discern which tweets are “promoted” (ads) and which are genuine.
I don’t have to think how I’m being used. (Yet.)
And I don’t have to worry about how it affects my personal brand. (Yet.)
Ello is for Writers.
I think a lot of writers are going to find the same enjoyment in this lovely platform.
Unlike Twitter, your posts can be as long as you like.
There are some very basic formatting features (bold, italics, and text linking), and you can upload photos and animated gifs if you wish.
There’s a potential for it to turn into an image-driven Tumblr-esque experience, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
Because this is going to be a content-first platform. There are no likes, no favorites, no way to interact with other posts other than writing to people.
And that’s a beautiful thing.
Follow me on Ello, and let me know what you think.
UPDATE: I forgot to add that there are no baby pictures on Ello. Yet.