Getting started with your Fediverse account

So you've got your account, but what to do with it? (If you don't have one yet go to How do I get an account?)

Writing an intro post

If you're new it's always a good idea to write an intro post. Use the hashtag #introduction (#introductions and #intro are also used) and tell us about yourself. What are your hobbies, interests, political views, causes and – very important – pronouns. Of course only tell us what you are comfortable with.
Use hashtags of your interests so you are more easily found.
A good intro post will get you some boosts and follows from like-minded people.
It's also a good idea to pin your intro post on your profile (this is not possible with every Fediverse software).
If someone discovers your profile, they might not see any posts from before they discovered you. Unless you have pinned posts that is. Pinned posts are always discovered with the profile.

Filling your (home)-timeline(s) with interesting content

At the beginning your home timeline will be quite empty, so you should start following people who post interesting stuff. There are many ways to find those, for example:

• Browse recommendations under the hashtags #FollowFriday and #FollowRecommendation.
• There is @FediFollows with recommendations ordered by category in this thread.
• Social Search lists most followed users by search phrase.
• Who To Follow For Mastodon & Pleroma lists new and active users automatically.

Once you follow a few people just check out the home timeline. Depending on the software your instance is using there will be boosted posts from accounts you are not following yet. If you like what you see you can follow those too to fill the timeline more.

If you are using the advanced interface of Mastodon you can also create hashtag timelines. Just search for a hashtag and click on it. A new column will open which displays posts of that hashtag. In the top right corner you can click to pin the column. Once you did that you can click in the top right corner again and add additional hashtags to the column.