Twitter is now X. Like all of Elon Musk’s other changes to the platform, the rebranding kickstarted a round of media coverage and speculation about Musk’s motivations.
Guessing what Musk will do next is not worth your time. You have limited resources and need a straightforward B2B lead generation strategy for how you’ll use social media in your revenue generation system.
Answer these 3 questions to determine if you should devote marketing resources to X (formerly Twitter).
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3 Questions To Answer About X (Twitter) For Social Media B2B Lead Generation Strategy
1. Is your target audience still there and paying attention?
Immediately after Musk’s takeover, high-profile celebrities and casual users Tweeted they planned to leave Twitter.
Given the news hype about the impending exodus, you’d be forgiven for thinking the platform is now a ghost town.
According to data from the Wall Street Journal, that is hardly the state of affairs. More than 6 months after Musk bought the platform, over 200 million people still used X (Twitter) daily.
Is your target market in that group? Are they paying attention to the platform?
One way to tell: they engage with you on Twitter.
2. Do your posts get seen, liked, and shared?
It’s worthwhile to stick around X (Twitter) and maintain your current strategy if your content is reaching your target market and they are engaging.
Are users liking, sharing, and commenting on your posts? Do people even see your posts? Don’t rely on anecdotal evidence or what you think is happening. Measure ROI using statistics.
Every social media platform will show you key engagement metrics. You could also use other tools, like Google Analytics or a third-party service like Sprout Social.
When you look at your data, at a minimum, you want to check your:
- Reach
- Impressions
- Engagement rate
- Shares
- Likes
- Video views
Social media engagement can bring SEO benefits too.
Strong social media engagement provides indirect SEO benefits for your site. Here’s how.
You share a link to an article on your site. Other users share your post with the link. Traffic to your site increases and people click through to read the article. Users who stick around and explore other pages on your site signal to Google that you produce quality content. That feeds into the algorithm and your pages could start to rank higher in searches.
You could potentially earn backlinks too, if one of the users decides to link to your site from theirs.
3. Does X (Twitter) help you increase brand awareness?
Your answer to question 2 will determine if X helps you increase brand awareness. Check your stats and zero in on shares and conversations.
When your B2B lead generation target market shares your content, you potentially expand your reach. It all depends on who follows your followers. You’ll only net potential new clients if your followers engage other members of your target market on X who now want to follow you.
Conversations are another meaningful signal. Do you respond when people comment on your posts? Does this start business-focused conversations that lead to meaningful networking, referrals, or appointments? If so, X still has value for you.
Should Your Business Use X (Twitter) for Marketing?
Your social media marketing goal is to engage your target audience, increase brand awareness, and drive traffic back to your website.
If you can still do that on X, great. Maintain your strategy and diversify.
Where should I focus social media resources?
Most business owners I speak with have more success driving the right conversations on a different platform: LinkedIn.
3 reasons LinkedIn is more effective for lead generation
- Less noise
LinkedIn users have business conversations. The celebrities, athletes, journalists, and politicians on X discuss everything from scandals to vacations. It’s a noisy world and your links to blogs and client success stories are easily drowned out on X. The LinkedIn audience is more receptive since they expect to hear updates from entrepreneurs and businesses – not the results of last night’s game. Many of these users are authorized to make decisions.
- Direct access to 65 million decision-makers
65 million decision makers are on LinkedIn. On top of that, out of every 5 users, 4 influence decisions. Instead of reaching teenagers and grandparents, you can engage businesses that use your products and services. No other social media platform boasts a more relevant audience for B2B marketing. - Reach new potential clients
People connect on LinkedIn with others in their industry or a related field. Which means your followers’ connections are likely part of your target market.
If you post an article on LinkedIn, and one of your followers shares it, you automatically reach potential clients. On X, the same shared article might only reach your followers’ family and friends.
What about Threads?
Meta launched a Twitter-like platform in June 2023 called Threads. In July 2023, Threads had around 13 million daily users, a 70% drop from its high in June 2023. It is too early to tell how people will use Threads, or if it will be a viable B2B lead generation tool.
X (Twitter) Timeline Under Elon Musk
U-turns, confusion, and endless conversations about what’s happening have marked Musk’s tenure at X (Twitter). Below are a few key dates.
October 28, 2022: The deal is done
Elon Musk officially buys Twitter for $44 billion and key executives depart.
November 2022: Mass layoffs begin
Musk lays off 3,700 people. At the time, this was approximately half of Twitter’s employees. Further layoffs followed in 2023.
November 2022: Musk introduces an $8/month subscription
Once reserved for verified accounts, Musk opened the blue checkmark to anyone willing to pay $8/month for Twitter Blue.
The change kickstarted controversy and confusion over the veracity of who really is behind an account. In an attempt to create clarity, new icons and colors were introduced.
December 2022: The CEO poll
Musk polls his followers asking if he should step down as CEO. A majority vote “yes” and Musk agrees he will eventually resign.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
May 2023: New CEO hired
Musk announces he’s hired a new CEO without naming who it is. He later shares it is Linda Yaccarino, a longtime media advertising executive.
July 2023: Post per day limits introduced
On July 1, Musk imposed limits on the number of tweets users could view per day. Initially he set the caps at 600 tweets per day for unverified accounts, and 6,000 per day for verified accounts. Following backlash, he expanded the limits to 1,000 and 10,000, respectively.
July 2023: Twitter becomes X
Musk rebranded Twitter to X, part of his push to turn the platform into an “everything app.”
Ready To Ditch Trending Topics and Continual Changes?
KLA Group’s digital marketing consultants pay attention to what’s happening across key social platforms for our clients. Critical, strategic updates are delivered as needed, along with an action plan to pivot and take advantage of the latest developments. Contact us to get started.
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