What's the Future of Twitter? Key Takeaways from the National Digital Roundtable

by Patrick Kane and Mark Russell

Communicators everywhere all have the same question right now: What is going on at Twitter?

With that in mind, National Digital Roundtable and British Embassy Washington co-hosted a roundtable discussion on the future of the platform and what these changes will mean for us.

We gathered some of the top minds from government, non-profits, the private sector and beyond for a fruitful, honest conversation and we wanted to share some of our key takeaways.

For government comms folks, Twitter serves as a broadcast service during periods of crisis. It remains a vital tool for reaching audiences globally in a rapid manner. Recent changes to Twitter and the questions surrounding them are a big opportunity for communicators to ensure that comms is part of internal conversations from the start.

Twitter also serves as a major source for monitoring conversations in real time, sense checking public interest and understanding how perceptions are shifting.?

These changes also serve as a good reminder to ensure our communications efforts are diversified. There is still value in utilizing traditional media, newsletters and email campaigns, 1:1 engagement and events.?

On advertising side, Twitter remains less impactful in driving sales and website clicks than other social media platforms. Many of the attendees voiced concerns about a lack of content moderation leading to their ads or posts appearing alongside inappropriate or harmful content, which could in turn lead to a poor image of their brand. (And a least a few attendees wondered if the audience would simply grow accustomed to a mixed blend of messages on Twitter and not hold brands accountable for where their ads appear.)?

Mastodon has gained steam in the competition to become the “new Twitter” but with many different servers, it may struggle to get the same level of usage that Twitter has enjoyed. There has been a wave of progressive organizations leaving Twitter to join Mastodon, but communicators will likely be hesitant to spend time and resources overcoming that steep learning curve. (At the same time, you might want to hedge your bets and grab your name on Mastodon before someone else does—and if you do leave Twitter, you should probably keep your account rather than fully deleting, for the same reason).

There’s also a case to be made that despite some well-publicized departures from Twitter, there’s a class of folks who will be among the last to leave Twitter. As Nancy Scola notes on Politico, “Washington takes Twitter very seriously. Twitter is a place where all the worlds that make up Washington — the politicians, the policy experts, the press, academics, activists, and others — gather.” Why? She lists access to reporters (who are on Twitter to follow politicians—a fact backed up by Pew Research Center in 2022) as one of the most important assets that users will find hard to replicate elsewhere, along with the “listening” post function that Twitter serves (noted above).

Reporters and pols may not be the only ones who will stick around on Twitter. Although events such as the drop of the so-called Twitter files (and the related drop of Tesla stock) might make this seem like old news, in November of 2022, Fortune cast a sceptical eye on the likelihood of the masses departing Twitter: “Twitter’s staying power once again proves that media users’ habits aren’t particularly driven by high-minded issues of politics, ethics, and corporate power. What happened when Cambridge Analytica harvested massive amounts of Facebook user data, Instagram profited off of teen angst, YouTube platformed disinformation purveyors, and Spotify stood by Joe Rogan? Their user bases kept growing.”

It's a good reminder that our audiences are diverse and complex.

Top takeaways: Government and brands alike will use the platforms where their key audiences spend their time. We will all continue to follow this closely and ensure our comms approaches are diverse. We’ll focus on the audience and the message.?

We’re optimistic about the future of social media, not least because all of the great communicators in this roundtable discussion are thinking critically about how to make sure we are using our platforms to keep the internet safe, valuable and of course, fun!

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Patrick Kane is the Head of Digital Communications at the British Embassy Washington , where he leads messaging for the national @UKinUSA channels. He is passionate about using digital platforms to communicate foreign policy ideas in a way that makes sense to everyone, with experience in the think tank world, government and academia. Patrick serves as the chair of National Digital Roundtable’s ‘Breaking Through’ Series and sits on the NDR Board of Advisors. He currently lives in Washington, DC and is a dog lover, though he doesn’t have one of his own yet.

Mark Russell is the CMCO at FSG , a global nonprofit consulting firm that partners with foundations and corporations to create equitable systems change. He’s worked in nonprofit communications for most of his career, which has ranged from higher education to environmental and human rights organizations. He’s based north of Boston, where he tries to find time to surf and spend time with his family.