The Twitter dilemma: should you stay or should you go?

Life on Twitter has been hard work lately. Constant tech failures, rule changes, opaque algorithms and threats to punish those who aren’t paying. But for many of us working in the charity sector, over the years it's been an invaluable tool for reaching key audiences on important issues. For journalists and policymakers, it’s still the channel of choice.?

Even so, have you been considering whether or not it’s all worth it??

We’ve been advising lots of our clients across the not for profit sector, big and small, young and established. It’s quite clear that no size fits all. So let me share our approach to navigating the issues, and hopefully it can help you in your soul-searching too.?

Firstly, a few of the key considerations (still true at time of writing!):

• If you want to advertise on Twitter, you have to pay for the blue tick.?
• Twitter is telling users that if they don’t have a blue tick, their organic content will be deprioritised on feeds?
• Reported glitches in ads performance, analytics and image display continue.

Where to from here??

Our approach has been to work with clients to do their own cost-benefit analysis of the situation. The right response to this situation will be different for each organisation and client.

For some clients the benefits and potential impact of using Twitter outweigh the ickiness of paying for Musk’s Twitter.?

Here are the questions you should ask yourself (and your organisation) to help you come to a decision.?

?? Is Twitter a key channel for reaching your target audiences or are they predominantly elsewhere? Don’t make assumptions about where people are at - do your research! The situation might have changed since you last checked. Some desk research and a good social listening tool can help.

?? What are your goals on Twitter? Do you have a clear strategy? And is it still plausible with all of the recent changes taken into account?

?? Are Twitter ads a crucial part of your digital strategy?

?? Could paying for the blue tick threaten reputational damage to your organisation among your audiences??

?? Do changes at Twitter directly undermine your organisation’s cause or values??

?? How many people are you able to reach on there and are they currently engaging? Only you know what represents satisfactory reach. And a good engagement rate is over 2%

?? Do you have other channels ready to go??

And if you decide to go?

Here are a few other ways to shore up your digital comms and reach your target audiences:

?? Up your email game. Oft-neglected email is still the most targeted way to reach your audiences and comes without the ethical baggage of a lot of social media.?

?? Make more of your other existing social channels. Linkedin might be your closest substitute for reaching policymaker audiences for example.

?? Try out brand new platforms with a whole new ethos. Substack Notes, T2 (created by ex-Twitter employees and coming soon) and Mastodon show potential.?

I hope this has been helpful, and good luck out there. ??

If you want to talk more, get in touch at [email protected]