Did you notice a new app on your phone? Did you start questioning yourself asking, “When did I download X?” You are not alone, and you did not accidentally download an app named “X.”
What’s Happening?
On July 23rd, one tweet from Elon Musk brought forth the start of the end of Twitter, and the beginning of X. Twitter, now known as X, is going through a rebrand, one that continues to change its branding daily. There are no brand guidelines, Twitter still exists, but the iconic bird icon is gone.
People are confused. Is this Twitter? Is this X? Are tweets still tweets? The simple answer is, only Elon Musk knows. Musk intends to turn X into the “everything app,” something he hinted at back in October before purchasing Twitter. Twitter users are now left wondering “What will this platform become?”
Since the purchase of Twitter, Elon Musk has spurred controversy by removing verified accounts in favor of a pay-to-verify system, mislabeling media companies, and content moderation concerns to name a few. These decisions have led to more than half of Twitter’s top 1,000 advertisers to abandon advertising efforts on the platform.
What’s Next?
Despite the new changes and controversy surrounding X, and the launch of competitor, Threads by Meta, new user sign-ups have reached an all-time high according to X and Elon Musk. X continues to make changes that they feel are going to push the platform forward following their rebranding efforts. X is offering steep discounts on advertising to try and win back the advertisers who left the platform. Gone are the days of seeing a “promoted” label at the bottom of a tweet, they will now display an “Ad” label in the top right-hand corner. We’re seeing that ad discounts and replacing the location and name of promoted tweets to “Ad” is not enough to get brands spending on Twitter again.
Starting August 7th, brand accounts that failed to spend at least $1,000 on ads in the last 30 days or $6,000 in the last 180 days, will lose their gold verification check mark. Brands that have left X are being backed into a corner. Do they continue to not advertise on a platform that may harm brand safety and in turn lose their brand badge? Or do they pay X to keep their badged status in an attempt to protect their brand, while running the risk of their ads appearing next to content that is not brand safe?
Our social media experts at Butler/Till continue to monitor X. Brand safety is a major concern that continues to drive our questioning of whether X is the best platform for our clients to be advertising on. With platform changes being poorly communicated, incomplete branding, and questionable content, X continues to stray further from being an ideal partner that marketers and brands want to work with. Our teams are committed to tracking the developments of X and being a resource for our clients. For questions on this topic or more information on X, reach out to our digital experts today.
