We have now escaped from the world of Meta adn turn our attention to the much more volatile land of Twitter, which appears to a different world but is somehow the same since the rounds with Elon Musk earlier this year. Twitter has always been the most “real-time” of all the platforms as “tweets” (originally anyway) were limited to 180 characters. Though that ban is largely lifted, its spirit lives on as a more real-time update platform. It is still loved by the media, celebrities and journalists.
Though Twitter’s recent woes, and there have been some, are largely a symptom of a much larger problem in social media. Poor decision-making by Twitter’s Board and Management Team has exposed real inconsistencies not only inside Twitter but with social media as a whole. This should be a caution to most businesses to be more “choosy” about where they spend their efforts and, more importantly, their ad dollars. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and lately Mark Zuckerberg, exposed the truth about how Twitter handles censorship of content. They appear to take an “all or nothing” approach as they remove and de-platform accounts they disagree with. This has become something of a joke now as to whether or not something a given, random, person tweets will get them kicked off the platform..as this post might do for us. Instead of whining as the market decides if they like Twitter’s approach, perhaps the Board of Twitter could consider this a clarion call for some real housecleaning procedures to bring ads back, but we digress.
Regardless of their social troubles, a business or nonprofit might consider two things before advertising on Twitter. First, do you have regular content to publish such as articles or videos designed to get attention? Second, is it important to have near real-time reactions to various events or commentary for your product or service? If you don’t publish regular content and don’t need to react to events or comments in near real-time, then Twitter may not be for your business. This probably covers most businesses that we help. Yet, if you answered yes to any of those then you should consider setting up a Twitter Account for your business and optimizing it but don’t advertise yet. Then, post some things and gain a following to gauge reaction.
Unless you are a content creator, celebrity spokesperson, journalist, or someone with lots of opinions that may not be as controversial as others, then Twitter is probably not for your business. Ad spend is pricey, and a bit harder to find than it should be. Yet, Elon Musk’s buyout attempt earlier in the year revivied some interest in this platform giving it a much-needed win after several years of very bad press from multiple groups in multiple parts of the world. As that sheen wars off, let’s hope Twitter’s Board took lots of notice and is willing to make some substantive changes to revive this once darling startup. Let’s hope then they find a way to make it attractive for businesses through sound, fair, management.