Do you know if your customers are still X users? It’s important to know this if you are one of the holdouts!

The old Twitter platform has changed quite a bit since Bazillionaire Man Musk (BMM) bought it out in 2022. He turned the platform into a privately-owned company followed by a new name and turned the company on its head

X remains a well-known social platform even as its numbers and earnings drop. Does it bring the same benefits to SMBs (small and medium-size businesses) that Twitter used to deliver? Read on for what I’ve learned.

There Are Definitely Fewer X Users Out There

In the months following BMM’s takeover of Twitter, 32 million users deleted their accounts and the company lost about two-thirds of its value according to Yahoo! Finance. Its revenue has declined by more than half since 2022 according to EMarketer, which also says it’s the only major social media platform losing advertising revenue.

The nest is emptying out. Credit: Helga/Pixabay

I wanted to find solid answers to two major questions about X, not just opinions about how it’s changed.

Q: Why are advertisers leaving X and not coming back in spite of a concentrated effort by BMM and his hapless CEO, Linda Yaccarino?

A: It’s because they were paying attention to where their ads appeared on a platform. Few advertisers want their ads to show up alongside offensive content. In an interview with NPR, Wired senior Lauren Goode noted that “major brands [were] starting to notice ads were appearing next to incredibly concerning, pro-Nazi content.”

Q: Why are X users leaving the platform?

A: Active mobile app users became frustrated by technical problems with the platform, competition from short-form video platforms, and “flagrant content” according to what the digital intelligence firm Sensor Tower told NBC. (More on NBC and Sensor Tower below.)

Extreme Content Doesn’t Dominate X But Hurts It the Most

Remember, Twitter had a serious problem with hate tweets before it was bought out. Hate tweets against LGBTQ groups spiked in April 2022 to about 250,000. It then went down, probably as Twitter’s then-owners took action to curtail this activity and attract another buyer besides BMM.

Unfortunately, the weeks running up to the inevitable purchase saw an overall increase in hate speech that peaked in November 2022.

A study from Tufts University looked at data from March 2022 to January 2023 and found that the platform attracted men who feel comfortable, perhaps compelled, to post hate speech even before the purchase.

Antisemitic activity on X, which had been falling, went up in October 2023 when events in the Middle East took a dark turn.

Since then, things have become more unsettling for advertisers and many X users.

In June 2023, an NBC News investigation disclosed that X places ads in search results for hashtags like #whitepower, #whitepride, and various dog-whistling phrases. These placements allow X to earn money off racist postings even though BMM pledged to “demonetize” hate content. X says it corrected such placements but why does it take “legacy media” (his words) to make it do what’s right?

To be fair, hate speech is a problem throughout social media. Algorithms work to reinforce users’ existing views, or at least reinforce what they find in searches. Still, as NBC noted, X’s competitors don’t allow hashtag-based searches to find hate content.

Who are the Current X Users?

Twitter has historically been male-dominated. Companies like Search Logistics find year over year that more than two-thirds of users are male. It’s also place where younger people can be found. Statista says 71% of all X users are between ages 18 and 34.

In other words, it’s a platform dominated by Millennials and GenZ, most of whom are men.

X says the topics with the most discussion in 2023 were sports, gaming, music, and food. These are pretty safe topics unless you have rowdy pairs like Yankees-Red Sox, Bears-Packers, or Ohio State- Michigan fans in the same room.

But X continues to lose valuable daily users that presumably include men. The Sensor Tower/NBC report discoverd that the platform lost 18% of those important daily mobile app users in a 12-month period, and almost a full quarter of those users in the year following the buyout.

Most troubling is that X claims it’s growing but independent sources say otherwise. Social Media Today, NBC, and Sensor Tower all found discrepancies between their research and X’s claims.

X Users Want to Keep Up With News

Pew Research spoke with X users in 2024 to find out why they remained on the platform. A quarter said it was to keep up with news, including sports and cultural news. Other responses said X is an entertaining place to hang out. And of course, there are those who rely on it to keep up with politics and political issues, the answer given by almost 60% of respondents.

There were deep partisan divides on X’s hands-off attitude on monitoring speech that I won’t go into, but you can read more about Pew’s deep dive into how X users view the platform and see other study results.

Politics seems to turn off at least some X users. Only 14% of people who post on X engage in political posts. But almost two-thirds of X users who post any kind of content avoid posting about political topics. Half say they don’t think they would make a difference, and a sizable number – 42% – refrain from political commentary to avoid harassment. About a third said politics don’t belong on the platform.

Notably, Black Twitter has not seen a drop off in users, according to an article in Vanity Fair that spoke with Black cultural observers who participated in a Hulu documentary on this cherished space.

New X Privacy Protections May Impact Branding

X made a significant change in June 2024 I imagine has to impact branding efforts: it no longer shows who liked a post.

While the stated reason is to protect privacy, it certainly will weaken influencers whose endorsement can make a brand go viral.

Posts will still show the number of likes, and X users will still see what they liked – but not what others, including people they follow, have liked.

Spend Your Time and Dollars Where Your Customers Will See Your Content

Smart businesses put content where their customers and potential customers will see it, so it’s worth the effort to investigate whether it makes sense for you to engage on the platform. Your time is money, so this applies to both posts and paid ads. Take a look at demographic statistics of your social media followers.

Every platform provides basic data on content impressions, likes, clicks, shares, etc. for free. Services like HootSuite and Sprout Social let you dig deeper for a fee.

If the numbers have fallen dramatically on any of these platforms, reduce your time and energy on them and spend more of this where you find steadier numbers and opportunities for growth. Maybe it’s time to take another look at Pinterest, which keeps expanding its tools, or join LinkedIn groups if your business is primarily B2B.

Consider investing in more direct communications with customers:

• Start a new blogging or newsletter strategy, using a service like ConstantContact or MailChimp which also let you post links to content you create on them to social media.
• Ask customers to send in photos or videos that show how they use your product or service.
• Sweeten the pot by offering discounts on follow-up purchases or early service renewals.

Lastly, review your website content and update it, especially product and service descriptions. Fresh content will help your site rank higher, especially as searches become more detailed. Use the button at the top right on this page to contact me for a free review of your homepage.