It’s actually happening - Billionaire Entrepreneur Elon Musk is all but officially the sole proprietor of one of the world’s largest social media platforms; Twitter. Musk got the $44 billion ($USD) deal across the line this past week and has already made some very interesting comments about some changes he wants to make.
While his views on restoring free speech are taking up most of the headlines as we watch this deal unfold in the media, us as Social Media Marketers need to focus on another one of the Billionaires proposed missions - removing paid advertising.
Musk revealed in a Tweet that he plans to get rid of ads on the platform and move to a subscription based model to generate revenue. This would require all users to pay a proposed monthly fee of $3 per month to use ‘Twitter Blue’ and receive an Authentication Checkmark, which is currently reserved for celebrities or other people of note.
Paid advertising currently makes up an extremely large portion of Twitter’s revenue. In Q421, advertising made up a whopping 90% of all Twitter’s earnings, so while Musk may reconsider his plan to remove ads, it is best to have a think about how a marketing strategy that includes paid advertising on Twitter could adapt to these changes.
Firstly, marketers must consider where to best invest the money they are currently using on Twitter paid advertising. Trying to reach a massive audience for a cheap price? Put your Twitter budget into Meta’s Ads Manager and run some campaigns with a ‘Reach’ objective to match the famously low CPM that Twitter provides. Using Twitter to reach an audience outside the Meta scope? Try running ads on platforms you haven’t tried before like TikTok, Snapchat or Pinterest. There are always alternatives to reach your target audience - be clear with your objectives, think about what you were trying to achieve on Twitter, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
While we invest our money elsewhere, it is important that we do not forget that Twitter currently has 217 million active daily users. Without being able to pay for impressions, a strong organic strategy will become even more vital to maintaining a presence on the platform. Reassess your current Twitter strategy and consider where you can beef it up a little. Keep your content relevant, stick to your brand voice and consider what content your community will get value from, not just ways you can make sales. Tweets have a notoriously short feed life, so spend some time planning ahead and using the scheduling tool to up your daily frequency and maintain a strong presence on the feed.
Now that you have invested your money elsewhere, your organic strategy is firing, but there are still millions of users on Twitter that you are struggling to reach outside of your community. Why not think about using some influencers? Just because Musk is removing the Advertising platform doesn’t mean that businesses won’t be able to hire influencers off platform and pay them to organically promote their brand or product to their community. Do some research into which influencers would work best for you, what you are hoping to achieve by using them and how much you are willing to pay. From there it is as simple as sending them a direct message, or contacting their management to secure a deal.
It is hard to say what Twitter is going to look like with Elon Musk behind the wheel, but one thing is for sure, Social Media Marketers can not afford to just sit around and watch it unfold. Stay up to date, be dynamic with your strategy and get ahead of the competition by being prepared to adapt as soon as the time is right!
.png)
.png)
.png)
