On Nov. 6, the day after the U.S. elections, more than 115,000 users deactivated their accounts on X. That’s the most in a single day since the mercurial Elon Musk took the company’s helm.
On the other hand, Threads and Bluesky have seen an astronomical rise in new accounts. Bluesky says its user base is now over 15 million and Instagram head Adam Mosseri of Meta says Threads has now surpassed 275 million monthly active users. That activity falls somewhere between 60% and 65% of activity on X, and it’s only expected to grow.
What does this mean for marketing?
Should you and your brand join Bluesky or build a brand page on Threads?
We asked CMI’s chief strategy advisor, Robert Rose, for his take. Read on or watch this video:
Users are flying the X coop
Call it the great flight from birds to butterflies — the growing migration of celebrities, influencers, and major organizations leaving X for the rising social media platform Bluesky.
Actors, directors, musicians, journalists, and now brands, agencies, and marketing strategies are increasingly turning their backs on X, citing concerns over hate speech, harassment, bots, and controversial artificial intelligence policies under its owner, Elon Musk.
Just last week, the Guardian media group, which includes The Guardian newspaper, joined the exodus, labeling X a “toxic media platform.” Earlier this month, the Berlin Film Festival announced its departure. They join NPR, which left X in April 2023, and brands like 3M, UnitedHealth Group, and Best Buy, which have retained their accounts but haven’t posted in years. And then, there are the brands that have pulled their advertising or quit X altogether, including Apple, IBM, and Disney.
A new independent network, Bluesky, is the refuge for X escapees. In recent weeks, the upstart platform has seen explosive growth, with over 1 million users joining in a single day and total users surpassing 15 million. Its app tops the download charts for both Apple and Google’s app stores.
Threads, Meta’s answer to X, had huge numbers when it launched in 2023, making it the fastest-growing social media network in history. In the last few weeks, it has experienced another surge of new accounts.
Should you expect a resurgence in organic content marketing and branding on these new microblogging, text-focused platforms, just like you had on Twitter back in the day?
Well, no. Let me explain.
I don’t think this activity is all about X.
Is this the start of a new microblogging era?
The days of brands setting up shop on these platforms and trying to create a constant stream of great content that engages, entertains, or educates a large audience for organic traction are gone.
That’s not to say brands should forego customer service channels on these platforms or ignore making their name claims. (On Bluesky, you can use your domain as your handle.)
I also suspect influencers on these recently popular platforms can help with the organic amplification of brand voices.
But in its heyday, the goal of microblogging was to build a channel of news, entertainment, or some harnessed brand voice that attracted engagement, shares, and subscriptions. These channels evolved to become newsfeeds for celebrities, journalists, and others reporting information, and I think that’s where microblogging will stay for at least the short term.
Yes, the big news will be people — mostly people with a bit of a brand — flocking to Bluesky, Threads, and other non-X microblogging sites to communicate directly with their fans. But I see no strong argument for brands to put that level of effort into the same.
Instead, marketers might do better in finding who — the CEO, the CMO, or all the sales folk — can speak through the voice of the brand. On LinkedIn, for example, I see many brands exist to amplify their human voices, reposting what the people are posting.
Could this organic social media, especially microblogging, be the strategy of the future? Possibly. Maybe microblogging will go back to its roots as a way for people to just quickly share and connect with one another.
As for organic social media marketing itself, the focus is on long-form and valuable. Perhaps it is really focused on video platforms like TikTok, Reels, YouTube, and others, where it’s less about connection and collaboration and much more about content consumption.
Social media will certainly be an interesting space to follow.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute