Is it game over for X? In the last few weeks we’ve seen a mass exodus from X to Bluesky. At the time of writing, the latter has grown to 25 million users, whilst X (formerly Twitter) has lost 2.7 million users in two months.
For me, this feels like something bigger than social media users leaving one platform for another in the wake of the US election. For a more in-depth discussion about this listen to the ACEVO podcast I was on with Jane Ide (their CEO) and Adeela Warley, CEO of CharityComms.
We’ve been getting lots of questions about what all of this means for charities.In this blog I’ve answered the most common queries we’re hearing about social media from charity leaders and also shared a few other things you might want to think about.
Should I join Bluesky?
If you haven’t already then yes I would, even if just to secure your handle. CharityComms has shared a helpful guide to getting started with Bluesky as has Charity Digital.
I joined Bluesky a few weeks back and it was good to see so many charity people, including leaders such as Kate Collins (CEO of the Teenage Cancer Trust) and Sarah Hughes (CEO of Mind). Charities such as CRUK and Sense have also joined the platform. When it comes to digital, I’m a great believer in going where the energy is and it’s exciting to see momentum building on Bluesky.
The big question though is whether this will be sustained. Questions have been asked about how the platform will make money as this is unlikely to be from advertising, but might come from users having the option to pay for custom domain names.
Some reports also suggest that, behind the scenes, Bluesky is beset with all too familiar issues we’ve seen on other platforms, with a large number of fake accounts and a rise in harmful content. If Bluesky can’t get a handle on moderation it will go the way of X. Reading between the lines, it may be that Bluesky is struggling to scale in line with its rapid user growth.
In other words, join it but don’t expect it to be immune from social media’s bigger problems. Diversifying across different platforms is still the best way to make your digital presence sustainable.
Should I leave X?
I don’t recommend spending much time on this platform. The issues with its toxic culture and far right leaning content are well known and it’s not a safe or comfortable place for charities to be right now.
Earlier this year the Race Equality Foundation decided to leave X due to the prevalence of racist content. That is the right decision in line with their audience and mission. However, DSC decided to stay. I totally understand why these charities made different decisions and the point is to work out the right thing to do depending on your audience and what your charity is trying to achieve.
The Guardian recently announced that it will no longer post on X. I myself only post on there infrequently now. It doesn’t feel like a safe place to be and the amount of toxic content served up by its algorithm is unnerving. But I am keeping my account and, depending on what your charity’s audience and aims are, it may be worth hanging onto just in case it is needed in the future.
What should my social media approach be now?
With the exodus from X to Bluesky we are in a weird hinterland waiting to see if the latter really does take off. Yet despite this uncertainty, the advice I give hasn’t changed hugely. Social media success has always been about much more than which channel you’re on.
Channel choice is not a magic bullet. There is no substitute for thinking through where your audience is, what you want to say to them and what you want them to do as a result. Given the current social media volatility you might have to keep testing out the best ways to reach them. It’s likely that they are also working out where they want to be online. Keep a close eye on what your audience is telling you, whether that’s through user research or from analytics. Now is a good time to review your social media approach and to prioritise where you maximise your efforts based on your audience and your goals. I’d also make sure your team is agile enough to adapt how you manage the platforms as the social media landscape changes. See it as breathing space to recalibrate and plan for the future.
As a leader, I’d use this time to learn about Bluesky but also explore other platforms.
Should I be thinking about other channels?
Back in the day when I was running the Social CEOs awards with the excellent Matt Collins of Platypus Digital, we worried about how Twitter-centric some of the nominations we received were. There were very few leaders who had a joined up content strategy across different platforms. This is something every leader should consider.
Whilst the social media landscape has changed a lot over the last year, charity leaders need to be visible.Yes social media is more diverse and fractured now, but if you have something bold, punchy and interesting to say people will still listen if you’re savvy about how you say it.
This is time charity leaders can use to take a step back and consider what their strengths are as communicators. Are you good at long form content? Do you enjoy writing short, pithy social posts? How can you do more of what you enjoy and are good at?
I love seeing how some CEOs are mixing things up with their digital content. For example, Dr Sarah Hughes, CEO of Mind, has recently set up a Substack. I also really like the variety of Ben Lindsay’s (CEO of Power the Fight) Instagram feed, who uses reels effectively to cover everything from issues he is campaigning on to clips of his podcast appearances.
On the ACEVO podcast we talked about how charity leaders should be thinking about long form content such as blogs and podcasts. These channels can be great ways to go into depth on complex topics and engage your audience. As a podcaster I love the intimacy of the medium as it enables you to have a completely different kind of conversation with people. Podcasts are also a huge area of growth. By 2027, the number of podcast listeners worldwide is forecasted to hit 651.7 million. And according to Ofcom, 20% of UK adults (11.7 million people) listen to at least 1 podcast a week.
I would love to see more charity CEOs using podcasts strategically to reach their charities’ audiences and champion their causes. It’s a warm, conversational medium which is well suited to storytelling and community building.
Many charity leaders have become more active on LinkedIn since the decline of X. My top tips here are:
1. Keep on top of your reactive engagement. Make sure you’re investing enough time on responding to comments and mentions. LinkedIn’s notifications tab can be a cluttered feed and it’s all too easy to lose track of conversations.
2. Be strategic with your post timing. The content on LinkedIn can hang around for weeks, so you might want to think tactically about how you space out your posts to get good engagement. I wouldn’t post two posts you really want people to engage with on the same day – aim for 3-5 posts a week.
3. Give vertical video a try. LinkedIn now has a dedicated vertical video feed which it is pushing. Next time you’re thinking of writing a post, why not try doing a ‘walk and talk’ video instead? It doesn’t need to be polished and can be filmed on your phone.
Is social media still worth my time?
Social media is a mature medium now, and it’s not surprising that many of us are feeling disillusioned. Yet there are still exciting ways in which we can forge moments of connection with the people we need to reach.
Whenever I start to feel jaded by social media I might try posting a different type of content, or I will try and remember something good that has happened on there, such as a message from someone I haven’t heard from for a while. The toxicity of social media now feels so extreme that it dwarfs the good things that occur daily on these platforms. Yet they are still happening, and they have their own significance.
The collapse of X is an opportunity to try new things. Social media will evolve again in 2025 and being flexible, and having a diverse social media presence, will position you for success.We will only get there if we keep challenging ourselves, are open to new ways of doing things and keep asking, “How can we do this differently, and better?”