How to Adapt Your Social Media Strategy to Twitter’s Safety Concerns in 2023

Key takeaways:

• In a private leadership discussion hosted by SocialMedia.org, 70 social media leaders benchmarked how they’re navigating their strategies with Twitter’s updated policies and safety concerns — 74% said they paused paid ads, and 36% said they also paused organic posting.
• Social media leaders shared how their brands need to stay on the platform to defend to monitor risks with increased fraudulent accounts. Some are partnering with social listening teams and using tools to monitor their accounts.
• Those who have continued their presence on Twitter are primarily using organic blog posts and newsroom content to inform their audiences on critical issues related to their brand.

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Twitter’s uncertainty and policy changes have created new challenges for social media leaders in 2023, and safety concerns have made it essential to consider whether you should continue investing in the platform moving forward.

SocialMedia.org members are sharing how they’re rethinking their strategies for Twitter’s tumultuous times since Elon Musk’s takeover and navigating their brand presence on the platform to engage with audiences.

How Brands are Responding to Twitter’s Safety Concerns and Updates

70 senior social media leaders benchmarked how their brands responded to the evolving Twitter situation in a private leadership discussion hosted by SocialMedia.org this past January.

Members noted an increase in brands pausing their overall Twitter efforts, while several leaders shared how essential the platform is for social customer care and crisis responses.

This sentiment was echoed during SocialMedia.org’s recent public panel discussion, where Erika Heyer-Watts, Social Media Manager at Otis, shared how their brand wants to always have a presence on Twitter to provide valuable information to their customers.

“I know there’s a lot of changes happening there, but that will always be a resource for our customers because we want to make sure we’re where our customers are,” Erika said. “It’s not our top priority channel for us in terms of content sharing and paid social, but we will have a presence on Twitter to offer that customer support.”

She explained how her team did experience success with some of their social media campaigns on Twitter at the end of 2022, and that she’s not opposed to evaluating how to invest more on the platform. But as of now, her team is not prioritizing any Twitter efforts in their overall strategy.

Managing Brand Safety With Increased Risks and Fraudulent Accounts

As attractive as the idea of leaving Twitter seems, many social media leaders feel they need to stay on the platform to defend their brand, particularly regarding accounts impersonating their brand names.

During the SocialMedia.org private leadership discussion in January, several social media leaders expressed concerns about their brands being unintentionally associated with any hate speech. It was also noted that there are worries about increased security breaches due to the instability of the platform and dwindling IT support within Twitter’s internal teams.

Jennifer Manger, Vice President of Social Media Marketing at Wells Fargo, shared more during the public panel discussion and how her social media team partners with their social listening team to manage brand safety. They work 24/7 to track any fraudulent activity that could damage their reputation.

“On top of that, our customer service team runs 24/7, and if there’s anything bubbling across our channels, they act like a canary in the coal mine to alert us to any problem,” Jennifer said. “We don’t really have control over what people say, but we’re monitoring what they say, and if there’s a problem, then we can bubble that up to senior leaders and say, ‘We need to address this.’”

Use Social Listening Tools to Monitor Fake Accounts Impersonating Your Brand

Jennifer and Erika both shared how they’re using social listening tools to track what audiences say about their brands on Twitter and address any misinformation that could damage their safety.

“We work closely with our digital security team, and they use a tool called Proofpoint that monitors our current channels and brand name,” Erika said during the panel discussion. “We also use that tool to monitor our executive channels, just to ensure that their accounts are secure and no one’s trying to impersonate them.”

Along with managing executive accounts, Jennifer added how her team also uses Proofpoint to monitor all of their social engagements, as well as anybody who is a regulated social media user in their organization who drives business goals.

How to Adjust Organic and Paid Efforts to Twitter’s Safety Concerns and New Ad Placement Controls

SocialMedia.org members also discussed how many brands feel at a standstill in regard to their Twitter plans as it is primarily dependent on their key audiences.

During our private leadership discussion, 74% of the 70 social media leaders in the conversation shared they paused paid ads on Twitter because of brand safety concerns. In addition, 36% of those leaders said they’ve also paused organic posting, as many are considering decreasing their presence altogether on Twitter for 2023.

In the public panel discussion, Consumers Energy Social Media Team Lead David Lingholm said his team pulled back on their paid and organic efforts to evaluate their future strategy.

“It’s disappointing because that’s one of the channels that we use to interact with reporters to get information out, especially during critical times like power outages,” David said. “We shared a lot of safety information there. It was a tough decision to pause, but we did pause both paid and organic for a while.”

Moving forward, he said his team will continue with some organic posts, but only for content around important news related to their brand and blogs for customer support.

Jennifer also noted how her team is evaluating Twitter’s new Adjacency Controls, which will help ensure that brand ads are not displayed alongside offensive content.

She said her team will decide if they’ll continue with any paid efforts in the coming months, but until some of the concerns around brand safety are answered, they will continue to only support customers with organic content.

Many brand leaders are still determining what it would take from Twitter for them to re-engage from either an organic or paid standpoint on the platform. 

SocialMedia.org members discussed some of the guidelines they would like to see changed, including addressing the replacement of the trust, safety, and data privacy councils and clearer policies on content moderation.

Will Twitter be Safe for Your Brand Moving Forward?

SocialMedia.org members are continually strategizing their approach to Twitter in 2023 and how they’re adapting initiatives to its ongoing policy changes.

David, Erika, and Jennifer shared more insights during the public panel discussion on how they’re addressing Twitter’s uncertainty for this year, and which social efforts they’re prioritizing moving forward.

Senior social media leaders at the world’s largest brands are coming together for a private discussion hosted by SocialMedia.org on Thursday, March 2nd, at 2 PM ET to benchmark how they’re managing risks and guiding social media presences on Twitter in 2023.

If you lead social media at a large brand, you can register to join the conversation to learn how your peers are adapting their strategies to Twitter’s updates and ensuring their brands’ reputations are protected.