Unsurprisingly, both the financial sector and the marketing world have been curious about the future of Twitter. If you use Twitter for your business, you may be especially concerned. Today I’d like to share with you what I’ve been telling my clients and students when it comes to the future of Twitter (and all social media for that matter).
My golden rule for digital media is this: Technology (and platforms) change quickly, but the underlying structures and strategies stay the same. When it comes to picking and/or adapting to social media platforms for your brand, there are two big steps I recommend following. The first one is obvious, but the second one is a little easier to miss.
The first step every organization should take when picking a social media platform is to look at the userbase of that platform and see how well it lines up with the attributes of the ideal customers you’d like to reach. After all, businesses use social media for one purpose: To reach their ideal customers. Unfortunately, this is where most businesses stop their analysis.
But I recommend going one step further…
After you analyze a social media platform for its ability to reach your ideal customers, be sure to analyze its capabilities. In short, I like to ask myself, “If this social media platform were a product (it is) what would it do for my business?” Twitter, for example, is more broadcast-based than any other social media platform. Many companies and individuals use it to become thought or opinion leaders, or industry experts. Companies also use it to get the attention of journalists and gain earned media. If I were a CMO who uses Twitter successfully for these purposes in my company, now would be a time to ask myself what other tools might serve this purpose in case Twitter does experience big changes.
Not only does this second step help us marketers keep our marketing in our own control when technology changes (because it will often), but it also helps us to be better strategists. I see companies treat their social media platforms as if they own them all too often when the opposite is true… control can be taken away in a second. This is why a smart social media strategy should always include funneling ideal customers to a database, email list, SMS list, owned app, or some type of membership section on your website. Why? You own those things and can control them.
Marketing is stressful enough as it is… treat social media as the third-party apps that they are and analyze their features to stay ahead of drastic technological changes. When you do that, you don’t need to worry as much about the future of Twitter (or any third party app) and how it will affect your business because you have a solid strategy to analyze, adapt, and pivot if necessary.
