Please direct your friends to joinmastodon.org or another instance of your choice like octodon.social, toot.cat or toot.cafe, etc. mastodon.social is "default" choice for a lot of people and it's getting kinda hammered right now.
@Gargron though the onboarding for new users is... paralysis of choice, IMHO
@calvin I agree, so it might be better to recommend them a specific instance (just one that isn't mastodon.social!)
@coachdrewglobal you can't. You can migrate and tell your followers to follow your new account but you will naturally lose a few ones.
I did it once and it was worth it :)