Leaving Twitter? Here’s How to Use Your Twitter Ad Dollars

Chipotle, Chevrolet, and Merck & Co are three of the big-name companies pulling their ads off of Twitter in response to Elon Musk’s leadership of the platform—and many others are considering whether they should follow suit. 

But what does Musk buying Twitter actually mean for your business? And if you decide to pull your ad dollars from the platform, what other marketing tactics should you invest in? 

*Cue “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” by The Clash*

While you’re deliberating on whether to pull your ad spend or stop organic activity on the platform altogether, consider these tips and options for where you may shift your efforts off of Twitter. 

Should your company quit Twitter?

You don’t want to jump off the bridge just because everyone else is doing it. Twitter is still one of the top 10 most popular platforms, with 40 million+ daily users—and it offers a lot of visibility for brands. In fact, 38% of users say they use Twitter to research and follow brands. If your brand is currently performing well on Twitter, you have good reason to sit tight and see how things play out before pulling the plug. 

However, if you’ve never had a strong Twitter presence or your target audience is in a mass exodus from the platform, there are more than a few good reasons to pull your ad dollars and reduce your organic Twitter efforts. Celebrities, businesses, and even major advertisers are leaving the platform or deleting their accounts altogether. If you’re seriously thinking about joining them, consider these questions: 

• Do you feel your company is well-represented on the platform? Many brands simply don’t like the new direction Twitter is heading, saying it doesn’t align with their values and mission. 
• Is your core audience still there? A lot of users have exited Twitter due to Musk’s controversial leadership. Make sure your target audience is still there before persisting. If they are, you may want to continue business as usual. 
• How is your company’s Twitter strategy performing in light of the platform’s changes? Due to some changes in the algorithm and platform management, some brands aren’t seeing the success they previously had on Twitter. Evaluate your KPIs and see how your brand is performing. 

And if you decide to follow in Chipotle’s footsteps and stop advertising on Twitter, take that ad spend and put it into something that will really help you move the needle. Here are a few strategies we suggest. 

Three Ways to Spend Your Ad Dollars

1. The power of influencer marketing 

Influencers are earning more and more trust in both B2B and B2C spaces, and it’s no surprise why. Influencers really spend time getting to know and connecting with their audience in a way few other marketing efforts can accomplish. 

When you boil it down, B2B influencer marketing means using subject-matter experts (especially in the case of B2B influencers) that can communicate more authentically, and often effectively, with your audience. According to HubSpot’s State of Marketing Trend Report for 2022, influencer marketing is one of the top five marketing channels this year, and 68% of marketers are currently working with influencers in some capacity. 

While it’s ideal to partner with influencers who have a strong follower count, in the B2B space, it’s even more important to find an influencer with authority in your field. The goal should be to gain strong third-party credibility. If your influencer is known in your industry and has positive things to say about your brand or products, that will go a long way in influencing your prospects. 

Related Reading: 10 Criteria You Should Look At When Identifying Influencers For B2B

Here are some ways to ensure you’ve partnered with the right influencer for your business. 

1. Identify your audience and niche market: A niche is defined as a “specialized market segment for a particular kind of product or service.” So how exactly do you find this niche? Think about what differentiates your business from the rest and the unique ways you solve customer problems. Then, run hyper-targeted tests to see which audience segments resonate with your content. Once you find your engaged audience segments—your niche—you can deliver targeted messaging and marketing strategies to those specific audiences and watch your efforts soar.
2. Consider going micro: Just because an influencer has a large following doesn’t mean they will make a big difference for your company. Research shows that some of the best influencers (with the highest conversion rates for brands) have a slightly smaller amount of followers (think under 100,000) with good engagement rates.  
3. Amplify with effective tech: Integrating the right tools into your digital campaign is essential, whether it’s a subscription to a tracking and measurement service or software to deep dive into analytics. Whichever route you choose, make sure you have numbers to back up your conclusions, so you can tweak your campaign as needed.

2. Why LinkedIn marketing works (this one’s for you, B2B)

If you’re looking for a space to invest your old Twitter budget, LinkedIn holds tons of opportunities. 

Ideally, your brand should already have a consistent presence on LinkedIn, but there are many other ways you can bolster your efforts on the platform. LinkedIn is an amazing space to share your thought leadership content, which is essential for anyone wanting to succeed in business—but especially for B2B companies. 

Companies that establish themselves as thought leaders gain authority in their space, creating more trust with customers, stakeholders, and current or future employees.

So how can you amplify your message on the platform? Here are a few tips.

1. Invest in LinkedIn paid ads: Paid ads help target your audience and ensure that they see your content. What marketer wouldn’t want to invest in that? When executed well, paid ads bring traffic to your website, increase visibility, and boost your bottom line. Bolstering or adding LinkedIn ads is a great way to use the money you had previously allocated to Twitter ads. 
2. Build out your LinkedIn Newsletter: The newsletter feature on LinkedIn is a fantastic opportunity to connect with your audience. When your first LinkedIn newsletter is published, every first connection will be automatically notified. From there, LinkedIn users can subscribe, and share with friends and connections. In a sense, it’s not that much different from an internal newsletter, but it will be sent automatically to all of your LinkedIn connections, which is an amazing way to keep your business top of mind. 
3. Follow the rule of Ts: timely, thoughtful, and trending: Make sure your posts follow these three Ts by capitalizing on trendy subjects while ensuring you have a value-add for your audience, so you aren’t just contributing to the noise. And even though LinkedIn doesn’t show posts in chronological order, make sure what you have to say is timely, so it will resonate with your followers. 
4. Build a multi-profile LinkedIn strategy: So your business has a LinkedIn with a consistent posting cadence, but does your CEO? What about your president? CFO? CMO? The best way to build a true following on LinkedIn is with a multi-profile strategy. Companies with well-known and/or highly accomplished leadership tend to be more trustworthy and, ultimately, more successful. Creating thought leadership content for your C-suite, and building their personal LinkedIn followings, will enable you to tie their followers back to your brand, broadening your audience reach while simultaneously reinforcing your brand’s credibility.

Related Reading: 5 Steps to Attract More Business and Engagement on LinkedIn

3. Invest in new and emerging platforms

Now that you’re taking a break from Twitter, it’s a great time for your company to look into TikTok, Discord, or one of the other emerging platforms you’ve been curious about.

TikTok, in particular, is growing in the B2B marketing space among millennials (the generation that currently holds the largest decision-making share of the market). While TikTok used to be known as a primarily Gen Z space, as it grows in popularity, we’re seeing a broadening in user demographics and the topics being discussed on the platform. Early TikTok adopters in the B2B space have a great opportunity to carve out a space for themselves before their competitors join the platform. 

Related Reading: Hacking the TikTok Algorithm

If you decide to invest in furthering your video strategy, don’t overlook YouTube. It has one of the largest daily user counts of any website or app and is commonly used as a search engine to find product reviews, tutorials, and more.

Related Reading: The 4 Most Effective Ways of Utilizing YouTube For Your Business

Discord is another emerging platform that provides a great space to build engaged communities. This popular voice and text platform now has over 150 million active monthly users and is quickly becoming useful for businesses and marketers. Discord marketing offers a great community-building platform to further your connection with customers.

So whether you’re fleeing the Twitterstorm or just waiting for the clouds to pass, these strategies will help you build your social media presence and stay in front of your audience. 

Looking to partner with an agency that can take your social media efforts to the next level? Let’s talk!