The Social Media Landscape in a Post-Twitter World

Unless you’ve been completely off the grid and hiding in a cave with no access to any form of news, you’ve heard about the upheaval surrounding Twitter. From the day in April when billionaire Elon Musk announced that he had made an offer for the social media platform, through legal challenges, to his eventual takeover of the platform in October 2022, Musk’s acquisition worried a lot of Twitter users and investors. His first two weeks as ‘chief twit’ (as he described himself in his Twitter bio) were a whirlwind of activity – good and bad. He began by laying off almost half of the 7500 employees, making sweeping changes to the verification system for accounts, and promising more free speech while also pledging to combat hate speech.

Musk’s changes sparked concern from advertisers – some of whom paused advertising on the platform. Given that 90% of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertising, a significant pause could spell the demise of the platform.

Where does this leave Twitter users, and, more importantly, businesses who rely on Twitter for brand awareness, advertising, and building thought leadership? Many businesses and users are in a holding pattern right now – not willing to abandon the platform and their followers but also looking into backup platforms in case this is, in fact, the end of Twitter as we know it.

The alternatives can be overwhelming and downright confusing so we tasked ourselves with looking into them so that you don’t have to. We categorized other social platforms based on intent: general users, business/brand users, established advertising venues and thought leadership opportunities. Under each category, we’ve listed the platforms and looked at the following criteria: advertising possibilities, ease of use, availability of metrics/analytics, social platform integration, and key features.

General Twitter Users

For general users who want to keep up to date on current events, discuss their interests, and interact with friends and strangers there are a few solid possibilities.

CounterSocial

CounterSocial was created in 2017 by a well-known hacker who goes by the name of The Jester. The platform was designed to counter the disinformation, influence operations, trolls, and harassment common on other social media platforms. CounterSocial is heavily moderated, allows for public and private conversations (much like early Twitter) and allows users to follow accounts they find interesting. Its interface can be a bit intimidating, but turning on ‘ostrich mode’ allows users to see only their friends’ feeds, the community firehose feed, and notifications, making it look a lot like a traditional Twitter feed. CounterSocial disables link tracking, which makes metrics and analytics impossible and makes it unpalatable to advertisers.

Mastodon

Mastodon has been around since 2016, though half of its users have signed up since the twitter implosion started. Unlike other social media platforms, Mastodon isn’t centralized. Instead, it is a collection of servers creating what the site founder likes to call a ‘federated social network’. These servers are run by volunteers and are themed, but users on different servers can follow each other without issue, and it’s possible to change servers. Signing up for a server is a bit of a process, but knowing the decision isn’t final makes it easier. The decentralized approach means that no one entity can impose its will on others, so if a server were to take on an extremist viewpoint, other servers would simply cut ties with it, and its influence would dry up. Mastodon is free of advertising, and its posts are always in chronological order.

Bluesky

Bluesky has yet to launch, so it’s not something that can be an immediate replacement for Twitter, but it does have name recognition behind it as it’s run by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Bluesky started as a Twitter nonprofit initiative in 2019 and promises to give users control of their own data and algorithms – though how it intends to do so is still unclear. That said, over 300,000 people have signed up to beta-test it, and that number grows by the day. Dorsey’s name lends credibility to the platform, as he has already run a successful social network. Bluesky was designed to be a solution to the perceived failures of Twitter as a platform. Basically, Bluesky will be a one-stop shop where users can interact with all of their favourite social media applications while retaining control of their data. According to Dorsey, the platform “will allow Twitter to access and contribute to a much larger corpus of public conversation, focus our efforts on building open recommendation algorithms which promote healthy conversation, and will force us to be far more innovative than in the past.”

Business Users on Twitter

Business users want a platform where they can connect with both other businesses and potential customers and/or address customer service directly. With that in mind, here are 3 options for business users.

TikTok

TikTok is a video-sharing platform that allows for 15 and 60-second recorded videos. It has robust in-app editing features and allows for sharing to other social networks (with the app’s watermark, of course). It has over 500 million active users and is the social network of choice for consumers under 35. There are some privacy concerns with the app being owned by a Chinese company and there not being a lot of disclosure around how much information on users is shared with the Chinese government. The other concern with TikTok is the very reason it is so popular – the algorithm. Nobody is sure how the algorithm works on TikTok, but it does appear to collect a lot of information on users in order to personalize feeds to each user’s interests. It does seem easier for videos to go viral on TikTok than on other social media applications, so many brands are willing to give it a try.

Influencers abound on the platform, and companies can advertise via brand takeovers, native ads, and sponsored hashtag challenges. Businesses using TikTok can also post organically by creating their own videos and using appropriate hashtags. TikTok has no real way for businesses to interact with customers or provide customer assistance, so brands need another method of communication if they wish to be able to have a conversation with potential customers.

Snapchat

Snapchat is a platform that, at first glance, doesn’t seem like a great one for businesses. Users send short, temporary images or videos to other users. These messages become inaccessible (disappear) after they’ve been viewed, and stories on the platform only last for 24 hours.

Despite the temporary nature of the platform, there are a host of advertising opportunities on it. Snap Ads are 10-second long vertical videos that automatically play with sound on. These ads can have an interactive element and can link to a business’ website. There are also options with geofilters which appear for users in specific locations (such as a retail outlet) or can be leveraged nationally for a theme or holiday, such as National Sunglasses Day. The third option for businesses on Snapchat has sponsored lenses that use facial recognition technology that allows users to become something else (like a dog) or wear a product (like sunglasses). Due to the temporary nature of the posts, Snapchat is not a tool for customer service but is great for creating brand awareness.

WhatsApp Business

Unlike the other two platforms in this category, WhatsApp Business is all about customer support and providing businesses with another way to connect with customers. WhatsApp is the top social messaging platform in the world, making it a great and cost-effective way to connect with global customers. WhatsApp Business allows companies to offer personal customer support to their audience, using both automated messages and chatbot capabilities. If your business were launching a new product, WhatsApp Business would automatically send the marketing messages the business created to the customers they selected via the broadcast list (with a limit of 256 people at a time).

Another big benefit to WhatsApp for international companies is the fact that the platform doesn’t charge a fee for international communication – unlike text messages, for example. While there aren’t broad-reaching advertising opportunities as yet on WhatsApp Business, it is possible to send targeted promotional material to customers.

Established Advertising Platforms

If you’re looking to move your social media advertising dollars to another, established platform, the big 4 are all solid bets depending on your goals and your budget. Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and LinkedIn are all good ways for businesses to advertise and promote original content.

Facebook

Facebook still dominates discussions of social media advertising, and with good reason. Facebook is the original social media platform and is the largest or close to it by every metric out there. According to Meta, their total advertising audience is 2.11 billion people or 72.5% of their monthly active users. That reach alone makes Facebook a must-use for social media marketing. Organic reach has declined steadily year over year as Facebook has become more of a pay-to-play platform.
That isn’t to say that businesses should avoid organic posts, but they should realize that without some paid advertising, they are unlikely to reach a large audience (no matter how many fans they have on their Facebook page).

Because Facebook is owned by the same company that owns Instagram and WhatsApp, the three platforms are interconnected, and there are opportunities to leverage success on one platform to help boost engagement on other platforms.

Instagram

Instagram is Meta’s popular image and video-sharing platform. After Facebook, Instagram is the second most popular platform used for social media advertising, so it’s definitely not one to ignore. The median engagement rate on Instagram is 17 times higher than on Facebook and 33 times higher than on Twitter. According to recent polls, half of all Instagram users say they’ve clicked through to a brand’s website after viewing their stories or content.

Over 200 million users visit at least one Instagram business profile daily. 50% of Instagram users utilize the “Explore” tab to find new accounts to follow – this alone gives Instagram a great advantage compared to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Youtube because it’s easier for users to find a brand to follow without going looking for it. 90% of Instagram users say they follow at least one business on the platform, and Instagram users have more favourable views towards brands than users of other platforms. Whether it’s an Instagram page for the brand/business, sponsored ads, or both, Instagram is a social channel you don’t want to ignore.

YouTube

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world (behind Google), with 1.7 billion unique monthly visitors This means that as a business, you can use many of the same SEO tactics for your YouTube channel that you use for your website – including keyword research. On mobile devices alone, YouTube reaches more adults aged 18 to 24 than any TV network in the world, making it a prime source for advertising. Users spend more time on YouTube on a monthly basis than on any other social network, with a monthly average of almost 24 hours.

In a 2021 study, 70% of users said they’d purchased from a brand after seeing it on YouTube. YouTube is very friendly for marketers because many video creators make money by putting 5 or 10-second advertisements in front of their content, and the huge diversity of content makes finding YouTube channels that align with business objectives fairly easy. Brands can also create their own YouTube channel and post their own content to it. Another route that many businesses choose to utilize is to align with influencers on YouTube, as the platform is one of the top influencer marketing sites, with some influencers pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue annually.

LinkedIn (Posts)

While Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and even TikTok are great for B2C industries, LinkedIn shines when it comes to B2B marketing. LinkedIn is a professional networking site that attracts the highest earning and most educated social media users to its platform – over 50% of users are college educated.

Businesses can create a LinkedIn Company Page and create posts about their company or products. Employees can identify themselves as working for the company, and pages can be used for recruitment purposes as well. Advertising on LinkedIn can be expensive, but for B2B sales, it’s the best platform. Advertising on LinkedIn comes in the form of sponsored content, text ads, and message ads, and the platform allows for very specific ad targeting so reaching niche demographics is easier on LinkedIn than on other social platforms.

Thought Leadership Opportunities

When it comes to places for businesses to show thought leadership, social media as most of us think of it can be a tough sell. After all, thought leadership pieces are usually longer, and social media is all about the quick hit. That said, if you consider some social platforms that are sometimes overlooked, such as Reddit and Quora and take advantage of the availability of LinkedIn Articles, it is possible to use social media to establish your brand as a thought leader in its industry.

Reddit

Reddit dubs itself ‘the front page of the internet. With 52 million daily active users, Reddit isn’t a behemoth like Facebook, but it does provide opportunities for businesses willing to invest the time to learn the nuances of the platform. With 2,8 million subreddits devoted to almost every topic and niche possible, it’s easy for businesses to feel overwhelmed, but once you find the right ones for your business, you can safely ignore the rest.

Reddit generally hates overt marketing, or self-promotion – anything that makes it seem like you’re only using Reddit as a place to sell your products or services. That said, if you are patient and willing to build your karma and posting history, Reddit users trust their research on the site more than other social media platforms. Brands can post to clear up misconceptions or miscommunications regarding their products, and Ask Me Anything (AMA) posts from brands can attract thousands of viewers. There’s also an opportunity for branded subreddits – but these need aggressive moderation.

Quora

Quora is an information-focused site where people ask and answer questions. There are over 400,000 topics on Quora, and users can choose to follow topics, people, or both. Quora allows you to publish short-form content like you would on LinkedIn posts. You can also target your questions to specific Quora users to collaborate with industry influencers or leverage your business’ position as an expert to answer questions.

There is also a paid promotional possibility where businesses can spend money to get their questions in front of more people (albeit with a promoted tag). Quora is a great choice for showcasing thought leadership because it is one of the most respected user-generated content platforms on the internet. Some questions and answers get over 300 million monthly visitors – and although new users are unlikely to hit those kinds of highs immediately, even a fraction of that can go a long way to positioning a business as a thought leader.

LinkedIn (Articles)

While we already discussed the value of LinkedIn as a platform for B2B advertising, LinkedIn articles can quickly establish your brand or business as a thought leader within your industry. Linkedin articles are basically blog posts – and indeed, you can reformat your company’s blog posts to be LinkedIn articles (though you want to avoid duplicating the content exactly). While LinkedIn posts and other traditional social media sites generally prioritize shorter content that skims the surface of a topic, LinkedIn articles allow for long-form content that can really get into the details – allowing businesses and brands to truly show thought leadership.

In addition, LinkedIn articles can be used to push readers to your website by offering a tease of the selected post. Because LinkedIn is the social network used most for professional purposes, users are often looking for quality thought leadership content to share, and LinkedIn articles can be shared widely outside of your immediate network with very little work on your part.

While this isn’t the first time users have proclaimed the death of Twitter, the loss of thousands of users a day over the first weeks of Musk’s ownership of the platform and the suspension of advertising by major players is definitely a worrying sign to those who rely on the platform for everything from breaking news alerts to celebrity death notices to community engagement. Businesses and brands have played a major role on Twitter since the beginning of the platform, and though some may argue that they play too large of a role now, the loss of Twitter would definitely cause a lot of upheaval in the social media world.

That said, the social media landscape in a post-Twitter world isn’t as bleak as the pessimists would have you believe. There are still a lot of opportunities out there for brands and businesses as well as general users looking for social platforms to use – it’s a question of finding the ones that align with your goals and putting the effort into trying them out.

Whether you choose one of the newcomers or go back to the old standbys, there are lots of social media options, even if the bird does fly away.

Looking for guidance on how to add one of these platforms to your social media strategy, Y can help. Let’s talk.