Hot Take: X, formerly Twitter, is no longer worth it for Brands
I’m sure that all of us have been closely following the developments on the social media platform X ever since Mr Musk took over.
I have found that is has gotten increasingly harder to gain traction, reach your followers, and grow accounts. Discoverability for a brand is practically non existent today. That is, unless you pay. But I have been questioning the ROI on X given the platforms limitations of targeting and click through rates.
Environmental Context matters
The environment in which your piece of content is showing up, and presented, matters how people see, remember, and interact with it. As emotions dictate our behaviour, the environmental context influences our state of mind.
Depending on where you are reading this very blog influences your mindset and emotional state. You could be seated at an airport, waiting for your plane to board. At a café, or if you’re lucky enough, at the beach with the soothing sound of waves crashing just beyond your feet. Depending on where you are, and the context in which you interact and read these lines, influences your emotional state and subsequently, how you perceive the piece of content you encounter.
Social platforms itself are just as much an environmental contributor for your content, as are the screens, and physical location of the person seeing it. While we have little control over where and when our audiences encounter our content, we do have control over the platforms we choose to promote out content on.
Is 2025 the year X will end?
It seems the platform is reaching tipping point. If you post on X today, assuming you even reach your followers, let alone attract new audiences, first we need to scroll past the now unescapable shouting match of the blue ticks (which we never know might just be bots), before reaching any genuine interactions. It takes so much more effort and time today to accurately measure, understand, and interact with your audience on the platform, that I feel it really is turning into a question of “is it even worth it anymore”?
Having my announcement posts show up between a political post celebrating nazi-like rhetoric, followed by the now “un-block-able” owner’s latest target of attack, and your now also unavoidable post from your ex, who you really didn’t want to hear about, is no longer just a risk, but actually the norm. The environment of our content is polluted, and the emotional state under which users see our posts is not a helpful one anymore.
With all that in mind, I’m starting to see X trending towards a place that is no longer a useful place to be for brands. The state of mind a user would be in when coming across our content is detrimental, in addition to the rather questionable ROI.
I cannot see the platform changing it’s course and direction, and subsequently, can see X getting to a point where it is ‘truthsocial’ just owned by someone else.
What’s the alternative?
However, I can see other projects gaining more traction, BlueSky being an obvious pick. I have seen traction on the platform and accounts also grow organically. Their feed function and discover options are a great addition and differentiator. With the right hashtags discoverability really is on a much greater level even compared to former Twitter.
Channel strategies have gotten more and more complex over the years, and I have a feeling this year might just be the year where we see yet another shake up on how to be successful across all social medias.
Ultimately the fundamental principle we work towards is to provoke the right emotion with our audience, as they will lead to behaviours. If you’d like to learn more about our approach, putting emotions at the centre, you can reach out to us here!
