Has the time come to leave X?

Let’s think all the way back to 2006 when Twitter (now known as X) first hit the social media scene. Different to any other platform available at that time, and distinct in its purpose even now (if you don’t count Threads, I guess!).

Twitter was originally designed for short updates – 140 characters max – amongst friends, in the same vein as texting in fact. It’s considered a platform for microblogging thanks to its character limit, and usually a quick way to get live information about an event or news as they unfold – particularly useful for crisis management and speedy comms.

Since its acquisition by Elon Musk, X (formerly known as Twitter) has been in the news rather frequently! Musk has been making notable changes to the platform, aside from the obvious rebrand, including cuts to the content moderation team, a monthly fee to be verified, plus different levels of verification for different types of account.

There have been reports of users leaving X in favour of other channels thanks to the changes brought in by Musk, with the negativity and misinformation on the platform often cited as the cause. However, statistics show that there are over 500 million users worldwide, over 200 million using the platform daily, 1.7 million joining as a new user every day, and is most popular amongst those aged 25-34 (mostly for news, entertainment, and connecting with others). If this is a demographic you currently work with, or are looking to tap into, really think about how else you’re getting your message to different audience demographics. Maybe having a presence on X might not be such a bad idea!

Is people leaving X simply just a trend, or is it a sign for the future that the platform is on its way out? After working in the social space for some years now, this isn’t the first time that we’ve seen threats of platforms dying out – and it certainly won’t be the last.

Now, there’s no right or wrong answer about whether you should continue or cease to use X as a communication tool. Ultimately you need to make the decision that’s right for your organisation and what best aligns with your comms strategy. Rather than simply abandoning the platform entirely, really consider the uses and benefits that it brings to you as another channel of communication.

The beauty of X is how far and wide your posts can reach. X is a straightforward route for the general public to get in touch with you and join the conversation, give feedback or voice concerns, or even just to ask a question. Let’s look at this from another angle… What platform do people turn to when they want to air their concerns and frustrations with key changes made to public policies, and what platform do those campaigning for public policies use? Where does breaking news often trend? If your first thought was X, then there’s a clear reason for that!

I’d actually like to draw your attention to something that I’ve been keeping tabs on, using social listening within Orlo. Looking at mentions of ‘social housing’ on X specifically from the start of 2024 until now, mentions have increased 828% – from 420 mentions up to 3990 in a month! Bear in mind that this is only a very small section of all the conversations taking place on X, so imagine how much data and insight you would be missing out on if you left the platform. What if those mentions were correspondence between members of your community and an ombudsman, or governing body within your industry? Or simply mentions of involving the ombudsman?

Looking at the housing ombudsman in particular, mention volumes have been consistent since the start of the year, so to combine that with a 1.8/5 for a sentiment score using Orlo’s Trust Indicator, it’s possible that tenants are looking to involve the housing ombudsman in issues they’re not seeing resolved. Using social listening to farm that insight will give you awareness of those interactions and steps you need to take to build trust in your communities and improve your strategy.

X has been on a bit of a transformative journey in its time… Starting out as microblogging, which later developed into a great use case for customer service, as it allows users to get in touch with organisations and receive responses quicker than they might through more traditional methods, like email. If you take that channel away from your community, you run the risk of pushing the inbound query volume to another channel where resolutions aren’t met as quickly (such as the telephone) therefore reducing efficiency in your processes and overall satisfaction. Of course, don’t feel like you need to keep an X account just for customer service, introduce a new channel, like WhatsApp, instead. But, on the other hand, it can take a long time to ingrain new behaviours in people so expect this to be a difficult transition. Plus, should a crisis happen, your team will have to work much harder to push appropriate and expected updates as they’ll be missing the oversight that comes with an X account.

Try and consider your X usage from a wider business perspective rather than just on a departmental level. True, maybe you are noticing a decline in inbound activity on X and you’re already tight on resources, so the simple solution would be to stop using X and free up some time. However, nothing is ever that cut and dry. By taking yourself off the platform entirely, you’re taking away your access to insights and data that aren’t repeated elsewhere; opinions, feelings, insights, interactions between your community and a governing body, all this data that shapes social and political change. Cutting off access to such information – especially in an election year – could cause more harm to your comms strategy than you intend.

Using publicly available information, like that on X, is a much quicker and cost-effective way of gathering feedback than traditional surveys, especially when you consider their usual low response rates. Maybe, instead of coming off X entirely, a pivot in how you approach using X would be more beneficial.

Even with the negativity that’s surrounding X at the moment, public sector comms teams still need to use the channel for general and crisis communications purposes thanks to its speed and ease of use for broadcasting critical updates. You can shield yourselves from in-platform negativity by using a profanity filter so that inbound interactions with specific words don’t reach your inbox, or filter these so specific agents don’t receive certain enquiries to protect them based on their individual needs. Thanks to Musk reducing the size of the X content moderation team, there are fears of misinformation flying around the platform, so a simple way to combat this would be to remain on X and correct misinformation as you see it happen.

Or, alternatively, change the way you currently use X and update your comms strategy. Rather than coming off the platform, use it as a general data source for research. You could keep your corporate account, so you can stay ahead of managing your reputation, but rebrand it and redirect your audience to an alternative channel that you’re using to manage inbound queries. Don’t totally cut off a line of communication, but offer an alternative such as a chatbot or WhatsApp. Doing this would give your X account more of a self-serve purpose, and slightly reduce the workload of your comms or customer service teams. Different communication channels means you’re still accessible when you’re needed so you can keep providing the same level of service you always have.

You might not want to continue to use X and, like I said earlier, the choice is entirely yours! But by removing your X account entirely, remember that you’re missing out on another opportunity to listen to your community, keep an eye on interactions between your community and governing bodies, and keep up with crisis comms or breaking news as they happen.