Not all platforms are worth it
After I shared the story behind Mongabay’s decision to deprioritize Facebook, several people asked: Where should impact-driven organizations focus their energy instead?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The best platform depends on your audience and what you want them to do with the information you share. Are you trying to spark in-platform conversation? Drive traffic to your website? Reach decision-makers or a mass audience?
For Mongabay’s global English-language reporting (Mongabay News), we’ve found LinkedIn to be the most valuable platform for engaging people whose decisions shape the real world — policymakers, funders, researchers, industry leaders, and advocates. Much of the interaction happens in-platform, but it also sends meaningful traffic to our site.
We’ve experimented elsewhere. BlueSky, for example, feels like early Twitter — conversational but resource-intensive, requiring constant activity but with little measurable impact so far. It may evolve, but for now, it’s not much of a driver of real-world outcomes for us.
If your goal is mass reach, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube might be the better play — especially for visual storytelling. But these platforms are less about driving engagement back to owned channels and more about meeting audiences where they are.
This is why understanding your audience is so critical. What platforms do they use? What format resonates? Who influences them — and what motivates action?
At Mongabay News, our choices reflect both analysis and mission alignment. We prioritize the channels where engagement quality — not just volume — is highest. That means LinkedIn, newsletters, syndication partnerships, and webinars. We invest less in platforms that generate empty views.
One thing that’s become clear: Focusing our efforts on platforms like LinkedIn doesn’t just help us reach our audience — it helps us learn who they are. That feedback loop is invaluable when impact is the goal.
Of course, every organization’s calculus will be different. Even within Mongabay, each bureau sets its own strategy based on which platforms best align with their goals. But if you’re grappling with similar questions, I’d suggest starting here: Define what success looks like, measure what matters, and be ready to shift resources as the landscape evolves.
