Technology

The problem is that this isn't like Microsoft Office > LibreOffice/OnlyOffice/whatever. You're not on Facebook for Facebook, you're on Facebook for the people there. It's why I have a lot of issues getting off of YouTube. I'm not on YouTube because their interface is nice, I'm on YouTube because the people I want to watch don't post shit elsewhere. It's a cycle, to get users we need stuff, and for stuff we need creators, and for creators we need users. When it comes to online platforms we don't need an alternative to YouTube, we need an alternative to Markiplier, which is harder to come up with.

If you can get your friends, and family onto Friendica that would help quite a bit. The problem is that using a new server is hard for the end user (I would know, all of my fediverse presence is on servers I host), and telling someone "Use Friendica" is like telling someone to "Use email". Get a Friendica/Mastodon/Whatever server, and keep it in your back pocket. Give them a link to that server, not to Friendica/Mastodon/Whatever as a whole.

Admittedly I don't know how hard it is to stop using Facebook because I stopped using Facebook right after they took away the chronological timeline, and stopped using Messenger a few years ago. But spending some time to get a timeline together that you can boost will help any new users you recruit. Crucially, to promote viable alternatives, you need to be part of the viable alternatives, otherwise you're just someone telling someone to jump into something new with 0 guidance, which is a good way to have them leave.