Is It Time to Abandon Twitter?

I saw a stat the other day that said less than 1% of your Twitter followers are seeing your tweets. And I started looking at my Twitter engagement and that was close to accurate. And so is it time in 2021 to just abandon Twitter?

Hey there. I'm Nils Smith, your social media guide. And today we're talking about Twitter and whether it's time to bail on Twitter in 2021. And let's see. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about the reasons why you should bail and the reasons why you should stay.

 

Time Investment

And I'll tell you one reason why you shouldn't bail or stay. I should better stay because you've invested a lot of time. Because you've invested a lot of time, doesn't mean you should just keep investing time. If there's not a good return on investment of your time, your time is your most valuable asset and you cannot waste your time. So if Twitter is not the right social network for you, you shouldn’t keep doing it. MySpace, people invested a lot of time and I invested a lot of time in it. There's a point where you have to let it go. And so maybe it's time for you to let go of Twitter, maybe it's not. I personally have invested a ton of time into Twitter and whenever I do let go of Twitter, if I let go of Twitter at some point, it's gonna be hard. But if I'm not getting a good return on my time investment, it's going to be time to let go.

 

News and Trends

So you get a less than 1% engagement rate with your content. That's significant. And so there are some accounts and some people that get really great engagement on Twitter. And there are other people that used to get great engagement on Twitter and they're no longer because people are on Twitter for different reasons. Now, it's primarily used as a news app now. And so it's where people are going to see what's trending, to pay attention to their favorite shows or sporting events and get their news and information. It’s one of The Charisma of Twitter. They're not necessarily there just to socially catch up on what's going on with their friends and family.

They're there to get their news and information. They're going on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with friends and family. And so, if you're just there for personal engagement and connection, it might be time to bail.

 

Perhaps It’s Too Late

Another reason it might be time to bail, or maybe it's time for you to not get in is if you're not on Twitter in 2021. You've never been on Twitter and you're like, oh, should I set up a Twitter account? Should You Be Tweeting randomly? Probably not. It's probably not the time to jump into Twitter as a new platform within your ecosystem. There are lots of other social networks that are growing at a faster rate, that have more time and attention of users. And so, Twitter is not a place you're probably wanting to build a new platform on. It's probably a place to stay if you're already engaged, already have a following there, an engaged community there. But you don't want to start new on Twitter in 2021.

 

Is There Value?

So here's the bottom line. Do you find value on Twitter? And so that return on investment of, if you're posting content on Twitter, are people looking at it? Are people responding to it? Are people engaging with it? And if so, stay on Twitter. 

Now, it might be that you're not posting content on Twitter, but you're going to Twitter for news and information. I check Twitter daily. I check the trending because I want to see what's going on culturally in the world and in the United States and in New York City as it kind of gives me kind of customized trends based on where I am and my interest, as well as kind of the global trends that are happening across Twitter. It has become a part of The Future of Social Media.

So I love getting my news and information there. So just the time spent watching is worth the investment to me. But I will say from a content standpoint, I'm still posting to Twitter. I'm still tweeting. But it's definitely an afterthought. It's not the place that I'm really customizing content for ongoing engagement because I have seen such significant decline in engagement on the platform in comparison to engagement on Instagram or engagement on TikTok or some of these other developing platforms where there is more attention and there are new opportunities to gain and build new audience.

So that's the bottom line. If you're getting value, stay. If you're getting no value, bail. It really is up to you. But I will say, Twitter is not on the up and up, but it's also not dying. I still Believe in The Future of Twitter. Twitter's here and I think it's really niched in as a news platform. If you're in the news business, you've got to be on Twitter. But if you're just there to engage, just like any other social network to add to your list of social networks, it's not time to jump in and it might be time to bail. You've got to make that decision for you and your goals and with your time.

So I'd love to know. Are you involved, engaged and actively creating content for Twitter? Leave your Twitter handle below. And let me know what platforms you are spending the most time on today. Are you on Clubhouse? Are you on Instagram? Are you spending more time on YouTube? Where are you investing your time in 2021 or wherever it is that you're watching this video? Leave that in the comments below. Thanks so much for watching. Make sure you leave a thumbs up below. Hit that subscribe button, ring the bell and we'll talk to you again in the next episode.

 

Related Content:

3 Reasons Why I Believe in The Future of Twitter

How I Grew My Twitter Following to Over 100k

 


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