Another thing that new users may not realize is that your Mastodon account isn't limited to following other Mastodon accounts. Mastodon uses a common open source protocol called ActivityPub, and can interact with other services that use that same protocol. Pleroma, for example, or PeerTube, or PixelFed. It's like being able to subscribe to Instagram or YouTube from your Twitter account.
Another tip: Every Mastodon account has RSS built in. Just add .rss to the end of the URL for your account, e.g. merveilles.town/@lrhodes.rss
That lets people follow your public posts from an RSS reader, but it's also useful if you wanted to use IFTTT to crosspost your public posts to another platform.
@lrhodes thanks for explaining:)
@rainbowvomit RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It's an old internet standard — much older than Mastodon or Twitter — that's used to alert subscribers to updates on a site. Basically, it's an open source way to subscribe to a blog or a news site, and it's the backbone for most social media services.