Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Vine, Reddit, Tumblr. The list of social media platforms goes on and on, offering helpful websites and apps that allow for the creation and sharing of information. Some, like Facebook, have stood the test of time and remain popular to this day. Others, such as Vine, had their moment in the sun before fading out of the cultural zeitgeist.
One that many thought would stand the test of time was Twitter, but in 2022 and 2023, we have seen the mighty fall as many migrate away from Twitter to other channels. But what happened?
Read on to find out a little more about the history and current state of Twitter, then explore a few of the top alternatives people are using instead, and how digital marketing works on them.
A Brief History Of Twitter: 2006-2023
Twitter is an American social media platform that first launched in July 2006. Its unique selling point was the style of messaging, known as tweets. When it first launched, a tweet could only be 140 characters long, which was upped to 280 characters in 2017. This was due to it originally being a text-based SMS service, where a short character count was used and you couldn’t go over this.
Twitter quickly rose in popularity, with more than 100 million users by 2012 and over 300 million by the start of 2023. So you may be thinking, why are people migrating from a platform that 300 million users actively use?
2022 Takeover
Twitter became a public company in November 2013 and for years just seemed to keep growing, opening new headquarters around the globe and becoming increasingly popular as other social media platforms became less prominent. In 2022, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, revealed he had brought 9.1% of Twitter for $2.64 billion and was appointed to Twitter’s board of directors.
Soon after this, he made an unsolicited offer to acquire Twitter for $43 billion, concerned about what he regarded as too much censorship and a lack of free speech allowed on the platform. After some back and forth, in October 2022, it was reported that the deal was going through, and Musk took control of the company.
So Why Are People Leaving The Platform?
Musk’s management of the company seemed quite questionable to outsiders as he dissolved the board of directors and laid off about half of the 7,500 employees. Many large advertisers began to pause or stop their advertising on the site, while Musk began to change how the platform worked in ways that confused or angered users, such as changing the character limit to 4000 for Twitter Blue users, a 3720 character increase from the previous 280. He allowed controversial figures to return to the platform and the site saw an overall rise in hate speech and technical problems.
So for many people, it was time to leave.
Alternative Social Media Platforms
Luckily when getting rid of one social media, another can easily take its place. Here are some alternatives to Twitter that can be used.
Mastodon
Soon after Twitter was taken over, Mastodon began to experience a surge in popularity. It is a social network that contains a range of different servers run by various groups and individuals. Instead of signing up to one centralised platform, you sign up to separate servers, such as your local area or something you’re interested in. Mastodon is being described as a combination of Twitter and Tumblr and many are choosing it due to the strict content moderation that Twitter is now lacking.
Mastodon has not implemented any monetization strategies into its software, so there are no ads, no paid accounts and no algorithm built to keep users engaged. While some may enjoy this, it makes it harder for businesses to use the social network, as there are no quick and easy ways to advertise products and services. Servers having their own rules can complicate reaching audiences without individually tailoring posts to each server, which can take time.
Hive Social
Hive Social is a Twitter-like social media app that uses a chronological feed instead of one that is algorithm based. You can heart and repost content, as well as use hashtags to find the content you enjoy. It is much more customisable than Twitter, able to add things like star signs, pronouns and different background colours to your profile. You can even sync your Spotify or Apple Music account and play your favourite songs for those who visit your profile.
Hive Social does not use advertisements and there is no way to verify accounts, but marketers can still use it by linking back to their own site. It promotes more natural and genuine connections, which can be hard for marketers to do successfully.
Tumblr
Tumblr has been around for a while, reaching peak popularity in the early 2010s as a place for millennials to post text, videos, photos, music and more in an infinitely scrolling blog format. While popularity has dwindled recently, it began seeing a surge in users following the Twitter takeover.
Tumblr allows sponsored posts and advertisements, so as long as you fit the engaging visual nature of the site, it can be used to boost your engagement and drive leads to you.
Digital Marketing That Works For You
Here at Bigg, we offer dynamic marketing across a range of social media platforms that will help you to engage audiences and lead to positive results. We do this by targeting specific networks to help connect with the right audience, creating engaging content that will grab the attention of those you want and tracking everything to ensure you know exactly how well you’re performing.
We can work with you to create a custom strategy built around your needs, as well as generate all the text, images and animations you may need so you don’t have to worry about anything. Finally, we’ll use a range of analytics tools that will help you review and revise your campaign based on real data, including interactions and conversions.
We can help out across a range of platforms, including Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and even Twitter. If you’re interested in social media that improves results, contact us today to find out more.
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