Leaving Twitter is a decision that’s been on my mind for a long time. Twitter was one of the first social media accounts I set up for the Marketing Optimist back in 2016. I’d had my personal Twitter account for a very long time at that point and it had been instrumental in helping build my networks online.
Since its inception Twitter, since renamed X by new owner Elon Musk, was designed to be a way to share information quickly. It initially had a 140-character limit on Tweets and this constraint made it fun to use and a really fast way to communicate.
At one point, I used to market events on Twitter and would regularly sell 200 tickets. Sadly, that was a long time ago.
It used to be a wonderful place to engage with journalists looking for a comment or an interview. We landed some good PR for ourselves and our clients by being proactive on Twitter. The journalists are still there if you look carefully, but recently they too have been leaving Twitter for social channels like Bluesky, more on that later.
Why are businesses leaving Twitter?
As I said, I’ve been mulling over if The Marketing Optimist should leave Twitter. The site has been losing active users hand over fist since before it was taken over, it has been plagued by technical issues, hacking and misinformation, as well as a lack of oversight and moderation
All these issues added together have seen the user numbers since 2022 decline rapidly as you can see in this chart from Similar Web.
Twitter is No Longer Commercially Useful for Most Businesses
While there are still successful businesses on Twitter, such as Ryanair and Aldi UK, who do amazing content and have a massive following that still engages with their content, brands which don’t fit or reach as well are seeing little return for their organic efforts and are choosing to leave Twitter and turn their focus to other channels that better serve them.
Should Your Business Leave Twitter?
That is going to be a choice for your brand to take. Ask yourself, a few questions first:
- Are you getting any benefit from still being on Twitter/X
- Are your customers still using the site?
- Are you ok with your brand being next to the kind of controversial content being posted on Twitter/X?
If your answer is yes to all three questions, then carry on using Twitter. But for most of the businesses we work with, the answers to those questions are no.
How did we react to our clients wanting to leave Twitter?
The Marketing Optimist team discussed the options available, for a long time, and came up with the following process.
How to Leave – Without Deleting Your Account
- Obviously, stopping posting on Twitter is the first thing. For most businesses, this probably isn’t going to be an issue because so many companies haven’t been maintaining a presence on the social media channel for a long time. The Marketing Optimist stopped posting on Twitter now, but we’re not going to delete our account for two reasons: We need to keep hold of it in case someone looks for us there, and we need to ensure no one gets hold of our account and misrepresents the agency.
- Decide how/if to announce that you’re leaving Twitter.We posted one final Tweet and we pinned that to the top of the feed. So should anyone search Twitter and find us we’ve left a note so that they can still locate our information. You could also update your Twitter profile bio to inform people that the account is unmonitored and where to find you on other channels.
- Look at the social media options you have available to you and redirect your efforts there.
Where Can Businesses Leaving Twitter Find a Similar Experience?
If you want a platform alternative in place before leaving Twitter, there are a few to choose from.
The leaders for the title currently are Threads, which is owned by Meta, and Bluesky, which is an open-source social media which ex-Twitter people were developing before the Musk takeover.
Threads and Bluesky have an increasing number of users, with Bluesky winning out at the moment. Both options have their limitations which are supposedly being rectified with further development.
While we work out what the future holds for these channels, we are registering Bluesky accounts for our clients to ensure they have their handles. We’re then going to complete the profiles, so they represent the brand. Then if the channel takes off, we are already in front.
And if not, then no harm done, but at least we have secured our client’s places on Bluesky.
We’re now on BlueSky, which is jolly nice so far. You can join us over there now if you like https://bsky.app/profile/marketingoptimist.bsky.social
What About Other Social Media Channels? Which Should We Use?
For businesses leaving Twitter, it’s wise to consider your remaining social media mix. Which social media channel is right for your business really depends on where your customers are. For B2B we always recommend LinkedIn as your primary channel.
For B2C there is a wide range of options to choose from. While a lot of marketers discount it these days, Facebook still has over 3 billion active users monthly, and, according to Hootsuite’s recent report it is still one of the best places to reach a global audience, particularly for family and older age groups. Instagram, another Meta platform, focuses on visual content creation and is a favourite among Millennials and Gen Zers with a large percentage (over 85%!) of its audience being under 45.
An endless scroll video feed, TikTok is Gen Alpha and Gen Z’s preferred app and a platform well suited to creating viral moments. YouTube is often overlooked as a social channel but as the OG video platform, it still has huge reach and a loyal base of users.
A good B2C social media presence usually includes a healthy mix of these platforms, allowing businesses to reach their target audience via a variety of content formats – there’s rarely a one-size-fits-all approach so do your research and consider who your audience is and what their interests are.
If all this talk of leaving twitter and assessing your social media options has left you wanting some support, contact our team today to discuss how we can help.
