What Else Do We Do About Twitter?
So, what's gone down since the last time we talked about Twitter?
Here's a quick update:
More than 62k previous-suspended Twitter accounts are being reinstated.
Twitter’s misinformation checks don’t seem to be in place anymore, for COVID or for climate.
Verification is coming back; in fact, here’s a peek at Elon’s slide deck outlining his plans for Twitter, if you’re curious.
Twitter’s still running on a skeleton crew, which means that functionality is (to put it lightly) impaired,
Elon has resorted to begging people to Tweet, and will start showing the reach of your Tweets on each post… publicly.
Despite the drama of it all, the way Twitter functions is still changing in ways big and small, and we communicators need to keep track. For example, did you know about the new ad targeting changes? Or, did you see that Twitter’s made a major change to show you more content from people you don’t know and have never interacted with? Much like Meta, they want to keep you entertained so you don’t jump ship to another platform too quickly.
Twitter may right itself eventually and continue to be the “public square,” or it might disappear next week. And what would be the implications if Twitter did disappear? Eve Fairbanks at Wired puts it eloquently:
“I can’t imagine following the breaking-news events I’ve been able to witness virtually—the first days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the invasion of the US Capitol—on another platform. It’s in these real once-in-history moments that Twitter comes alive. It doesn’t silo people into friend circles like Facebook or promote groupthink quite like Reddit. The barrier to entry for people who want to add to the story is lower than on TikTok or Instagram. You don’t need to angle for a photo or a video; you can tweet while hiding under a desk, or even—as Alexei Navalny does, hand-writing tweets he delivers to his lawyer—from prison.”
Right now, we are watching our Twitter metrics closely, and keeping tabs on the latest news. But we’re also considering what Twitter means for our amazing clients, too, who are foundations and organizations doing vital work to improve the criminal justice system in DC, fight for reproductive justice in Washington state, or bring environmental justice to communities in Texas… just to name a few. Twitter has been an important and valuable tool for community-building and networking with journalists, for fundraising, and for inspiring action. It’s easy to use, and it has been more manageable and accessible for those who don’t have the budget or the time to sink into becoming video producers as well as social media managers—and in the non-profit and philanthropy world, far too many of you barely have the budget or the free hours to spare for Twitter, much less something like TikTok.
We continue to get many questions from our clients about what they should do with Twitter, and, while we’re sticking to our advice from last week, it’s not very comfortable for us to not know exactly what the right answer is. But don’t hesitate to reach out if you need to talk strategy, or if you’re not sure what to do. We’re in this together, and we’ll help navigate through this storm as best we can.