Should We Panic About Twitter?
You’ve heard the news, we’re sure. Elon Musk purchased Twitter for a cool $44 billion, and it’s going great, you guys:
Fortune: All the ways that Twitter may change now that Elon Musk is in charge
France24: Elon Musk's criticism of Twitter staff sparks backlash
TIME: Twitter Account Numbers Have Fluctuated Since Elon Musk Deal
We won’t get into the politics, but there’s one key thing to remember about Twitter and other social media platforms, as Siva Vaidhyanathan points out in The Guardian:
“Twitter is in no way a ‘town square’. Only town squares are town squares. They are public for a reason. And they are local. In America, they are supposed to be forums for open, unfettered expression. They have no rules of decorum. They have no interest in maintaining order to keep advertisers happy or their users comfortable. They are exceptional places. And they are non-commercial.
Twitter, like every Starbucks, McDonalds, shopping center, and radio station, has other obligations and interests. Those spaces must maintain order, decorum, cleanliness, and comfort to keep revenue flowing and customers or audiences happy.”
If you’re all in on Twitter for reaching your supporters and customers, curating your brand image, and marketing your business to new eyes, there’s no need to panic and #deleteyouraccount.
But keep an eye on your community and on the platform as the dust continues to settle. There might be algorithm changes and new rules coming, and there may also be different user behavior happening already. Use your social listening skills to take the temperature; your audience might feel differently about Twitter now, and if they no longer like it they might wonder why you are still using it.
We would never recommend only marketing or community-building on one social media channel, because, as this news demonstrates, you never know what might happen with your favorite social media platform.
One day you’re posting merrily away, and the next day the platform might evaporate along with all your content and connections. And your plan. And your business. Just ask anyone who used to love using Vine.
Don’t put all your eggs in one social media basket! Diversify your digital presence, cultivate an audience in multiple places, and use at least a few different types of social platforms in addition to email marketing and your own website. You don’t have to be absolutely everywhere, but be in at least a few places so that if and when something big happens you don’t have to start all the way over.
Not to mention that the average social media user is checking their notifications and scrolling through content on an average of 7.5 platforms at once. 7.5! And that’s not even because of the Twitter news; as Hootsuite’s Global State of Digital report shows, this is just what people do.
Change is inevitable in the digital marketing industry. We have to continuously learn how to roll with sudden updates and adjust our marketing strategies accordingly. It makes us better marketers.