From Trends to Triumph - Marketing with X

It's been just over a year since Elon Musk took the reins at Twitter, and the platform has undergone significant changes. While much has been said about Musk's influence, let's shift our focus to the business benefits that “X” and its 280-character limit posts bring to the table. In this article, we'll explore 10 key marketing focused takeaways on why X/Twitter can be a game-changer for reaching your audience and driving business success.

1. Global Reach

X boasts an impressive 528.3 million global monetizable monthly active users. This vast user base spends an average of 30.9 daily minutes on the app, creating a unique opportunity for businesses to connect with their audience. Around 1 in 4 users are from the US (95.6 million), and the UK has over 23 million active users, which represents 40% of the population aged 13+.  

2. Demographic Insights

Marketing is all about reaching the right audience with the right message, and X confirms that 58% of their users are under the age of 35 years, making it a key platform for targeting younger demographics. Furthermore, its gender split provides further insights into the audience a business can reach, with a 2:1 split of males (66.72%) to females (33.28%).

3. News Channel

While many social media platforms prioritise entertainment, X stands out as a primary source for news. A significant 62% of users cite news consumption as one of their main reasons for using the platform, and research suggests that individuals obtaining news via X feel they have a better understanding of current events, underscoring its role as an informative and influential space. Memes, emojis, and entertaining content still form a large part of the platform, yet its power stems from the fast-paced interaction and engagement of its most active users. Furthermore, many journalists, politicians, and media companies share stories and information in real time, making it a space for users to follow and discuss.  

4. User Engagement and Content Creation

A notable statistic from the US market is that 10% of X users are responsible for a staggering 92% of all posts. This engagement powerhouse creates a fertile ground for businesses to connect with the most active and influential users and put themselves into the conversation. By understanding and engaging with this core group, businesses can amplify their reach and impact on the platform. With the introduction of X Ad revenue being shared with the most active creators more “influencers” are emerging, providing another marketing opportunity to partner with the right people to reach their audience.

5. Multichannel Presence

Despite X’s recent platform improvements (long-form content, spaces, etc.) it has been shown that every X user also has a presence on other platforms, emphasising the importance of a comprehensive multichannel strategy. A staggering 86.8% of X users also engage with Instagram, highlighting the interconnected nature of social media platforms and the potential to tie text platforms to image or videos.

6. X Content Types

A platform that was classified as microblogging with a 280-character limit has now evolved into a world of “threads” and “spaces”. Threads in particular have allowed businesses to tell stories and create more engagement via the various tweets in a thread and the different hashtags being used. The format of spaces is now evolving to live audio conversations between X users, which allows for interactive business to audience and guest speaker panels, debates, and updates.

7. Ads General

X had revenues of $630 million in the twelve months ending September 2023, and it has become one of the most powerful ways for businesses to combine organic marketing efforts with paid ads. X itself makes it easy for verified users to set campaigns based on their objectives (awareness, consideration and conversion) and helps businesses use the right ad formats, campaign set-up, bidding strategy, and results tracking.

8. Ads Formats & Audiences

X allows for simple image, video, carousel, or text ads, but the power will lie in its delivery of being a promoted ad with a small label or going via the X amplify or takeover route. These two premium features allow businesses to be paired with premium video content from the most popular publishers and to take over the timeline and explore tabs of users. Additionally, X will allow businesses to leverage audience insights, which show demographics (location, gender, language, device, and age), but you can also target via audience types based on conversations, events, interests, keywords and follower look-alikes. Customer audience ads via lists, website or app activity can also be used and by exploiting all of these tools, businesses can leverage the power of X ads.

9. X as Customer Support

X has become a vital customer support channel for many businesses. It can offer immediate support in a public and accessible environment, especially for industries where messaging over traditional calls is preferred and where customers engage on mobile applications. Furthermore, brand monitoring can become crucial from a marketing perspective and promptly addressing concerns, turning negative experiences into positive impressions. X allows for speedy and frequent responses, but a strong marketing to customer service department relationship will be required.

10. Innovation

Product innovation has moved to the forefront of X and with new subscription models, even X hiring allowing job postings for verified organisations and in-app messaging and calling shows a clear shift in X’s benefits for businesses. Furthermore, other social media platforms content can find their way onto X with new long-form content being enabled (vertical video) and plans for X payment integrations coming too.

Conclusion‍

In the dynamic landscape of social media, X, has become a pivotal force for business success. With a vast global user base, X serves as a fertile ground for engagement, offering evolving content types and potent advertising capabilities. Mastering X will involve understanding demographics, leveraging advertising tools, embracing customer trends, and staying attuned to innovation. X has evolved from its microblogging origins, providing a multifaceted platform for businesses to thrive. Navigating X enables businesses to turn trends into marketing strategies and of course B3 Marketing is here to assist you on your journey.