The great social media migration
Where are you heading after Twitter / X?
Elon Musk’s incendiary comments and misinformation on X about the UK race riots have been the last straw for many professional communicators.
This week, Musk has railed against a judge in Brazil who banned the platform for failing to block misinformation. He has previously criticised US Vice President and Presidential candidate Kamala Harris and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The social media platform has survived and even grown since Musk purchased it in October 2022 despite changes to the algorithm, the removal of content moderation and a name change from Twitter to X.
Brand accounts have fallen silent. Media and public information accounts cling on, reluctant to give up on the networks' reach. It has become part of the news gathering and media distribution system. Ripping it out is tough.
Users have stayed with X throughout this time because of its strength and its value as a source of news and the public square.
I’ve stuck with it because I’ve invested 15 years of my life on the platform. It’s helped me get work and book deals. I’ve met people who have become lifelong friends.
However, misinformation and the increasingly toxic nature of conversations on the platform have left users angry and frustrated. They mourn the Twitter they used to know.
The challenge is where to go. It was the subject of a discussion in our community last week.
No single platform replaces Twitter. James Crawford, managing director, PR Agency One, sums up the issue.
"Everything is so siloed. Nothing scratches the Twitter itch for me yet,” he said.
Bluesky growing as a media community
Bluesky appears to be gaining traction, particularly among journalists and communication professionals as Stuart Bruce, Co-Founder, Purposeful Relations, notes.
“I’m still mainly X/Twitter, but in the last couple of weeks, Bluesky has really picked up. I've created several lists [and am] getting a lot more engagement recently as more people create accounts."
Many users have spotted the Bluesky migration by journalists and professional communicators.
"I'm able to see their posts and interact with them in a way that's no longer possible on Twitter/X," said Rebecca Taylor, Scientific Policy Manager, Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
Threads as Twitter contender
Meta's Threads platform is another popular choice.
“Threads has continued to grow in its usefulness for me. There have been continual waves of journalists, friends, and celebrities joining over the past few months, and, as ever, you get out what you put in,” said James Whatley, Strategy Lead – Gaming, The Lego Group.
David Edmundson-Bird, Faculty Lead in AI, Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, has also shifted and started over.
"I’ve moved over to Threads in the last six months. You have to invest in [building a network] to make it work. Conversations have picked up in the last two months,” he said.
Facebook has been slow to develop account management features for Threads, which has held some users back. It recently added analytics, but the tools are a work in progress.
“Threads is impossible to use as it's just two random, chaotic streams. It would be usable if it had lists or a way of organising accounts,” said Bruce.
Meta has repeatedly said that tools are coming.
Other platforms
While Bluesky and Threads seem to be the main alternatives, users are exploring other options as well:
Mastodon: an open-source platform that requires a level of technical nous
LinkedIn: more a marketing channel than a social network and increasingly personal rather than professional
Substack Notes: a slow form of social like a blog and a good place for conversations but niche
WhatsApp: immediacy and strong network effects, but very noisy
While there isn’t a clear Twitter replacement, platforms such as Bluesky and Threads are gaining momentum. Neville Hobson, Social Strategist, NevilleHobson.com, made this point in a recent blog post. Users are adapting by diversifying their online presence across multiple platforms, he said.
“The sense I get from these recent events isn’t so much about an exodus or wholesale migration. It’s much more about a gradual unravelling of X where [recent events] are tipping points that set the scene for further unravelling,” said Hobson.
I’m going to leave the final word to someone I met on Twitter and who has been part of my social media network for almost two decades.
“We've all spent years building out our networks on Twitter. Expecting to have that again on a new platform, without working at it, is a trap that is easy to fall into," said Whatley.
As we navigate this new era of social media, patience and a willingness to invest time in building new networks are key to maintaining online connections and conversations.
