I have been a user of Twitter for a long time. I believe it is going on 14 years. This period covers the two full terms of Barack Obama, the term of Trump, and now the presidential cycle of President Biden.
As someone who, to one degree or another, has been involved with media since the mid-eighties, this period has been the most transformative, not only in terms of how we regard legacy media, but also how we get and process information. The striking rise and changing role of social media, especially in the pandemic laden last few years, has been a game changer.
Twitter has always been a great source for trending topics. In the early days, tweets were short. This had the platform termed as “micro blogging.” This combination of trending and short blasts of information made the platform fast and interesting. As my podcasting grew, it became my platform of choice.
However, for most of its history Twitter was not a huge financial success, especially when compared to the Facebook giant. Simultaneously, let’s say during the past five years, the old social media models began to change. Setting up the user base of a given platform to be targets of advertising was starting to become too familiar. Users had few rights to the service as “consumers” and popular creators were getting little recognition for playing a large role in the success of certain platforms.
If you miss the old Twitter, let me just say that its days were likely numbered had it stayed the old Twitter. Something had to change. TikTok was taking the world by storm. YouTube started “Shorts,” Instagram kicked off “Reels,” and so on. Facebook rebranded itself to Meta. Twitter was starting to lose its shine and was loaded with bots.
Enter Elon Musk. Twitter is now “X” and there is much talk of an “everything app.” I won’t go over “everything” but there are a few key changes that has me very hopeful for the future of the platform.
The following is from my perspective.
X is still very much real time regarding what may be termed as “breaking news.” There is a great deal of latency with other platforms. If your thing is showing pictures of your backyard barbecue this doesn’t matter and X is likely not the place for you. However, if you follow trending topics, X is a great place to be.
If you blog, podcast, or create video your audience is there. Authors, artists, musicians are all there in force. Do you have something you would like to raise awareness about? Influencers are there. I could go on.
Tweets, or posts as they are called now, can be much longer. For me, another big change is that long-form video content is also now possible on X. This is a very recent development.
Although I help others produce video and love the medium, for me and as a creator I have concentrated on podcast/radio styled content. Audio has been a passion of mine for my entire career.
When my podcast became successful enough for guests, especially authors and publishers, to start seeking me out, a common request was that they wanted to be seen in a professional forum and could share those links to their fans. YouTube was the obvious choice. I found the best software and developed techniques to facilitate good video interviews. However, I always made sure that audio quality remained a constant for the podcast platforms. That is where the listens happen for me after years of building a reputation. A quality shift can be a problem for multi-format creators.
My attitude was that YouTube was good supplement to the podcast. It is a search engine as well. This is all good, but it was never a strategy of mine to grow my YouTube channel.
In the past with Twitter, I would tweet out my episode YouTube link with all the appropriate hashtags and window dressing. Anyone interested in checking out the episode would have to click on the link and go to YouTube.
Enter Tucker Carlson on X. Not your cup of tea? No worries keep reading. This has nothing to do with politics. What is relevant is that his entire interviews are posted on X in video form and the views bury all the cable news channels combined. More media figures are now joining the club. The trending audience has always been native to X and now do not have to go off-platform to view video. Better yet, the video is in pre-roll as they are scrolling and is not just sitting there as a pasted link.
Live video is highlighted at the top of the X app. Live content in the form of Spaces is also a popular feature. Spaces are live audio sessions and presentations. Spaces started being a feature during the old Twitter and have now grown with the news-driven content on X. Live Spaces are also listed separately. This is clearly designed to use live content as a driver of the platform.
As a verified user of X, I began posting video interviews in long form and was very happy with the results. Recently, an associate of mine, ShamanIsis, suggested that we do a live video podcast on X. On Thursday Oct 12, 2023, we went live with the show and the results blew away any live-stream I have ever done on YouTube. The views and audience reach were in the thousands. Now, keep in mind I have a presence on X and am established as a podcaster, so these results aren’t necessarily to be expected starting out. None the less, these results spoke volumes about the platform.
I don’t know what your social media needs or expectations happen to be. However, if you are dismissing X because you feel it is just a place for people to post stupid stuff, or you have been dissuaded by negative things that you have been told, you are missing a possible opportunity to shape your brand and build a community. X has become more of a hybrid of media and social media.
Oh, and more is coming.
The free version will get you started.
@BillyDees and @ShamanIsis are our screen names on X.
Perfect Media Productions, LLC 