Digital marketing is changing so fast that social media platforms and traditional marketing channels that we could rely on to market our products and services last week, are not so reliable today, and I would argue, never have been. Twitter is the lastest social media platform that has created a trust mess for marketers and advertisers that relied on the social platform to spend their advertising dollars and to engage their customer base, but don't forget Facebook, they've caused content and ad trust issues too.
Twitter needs to teach all of us marketers a lesson. Maybe we shouldn't default to the same marketing channels over and over again, especially when they don't produce the results that we need to help market products and services effectively, as well as, build trust with our customers. Yes, we use marketing channels that have worked in the past for us, even when it's been small successes that hit our KPIs, and when limited by resources, we can only choose a few channels to focus our attention. I am guilty of doing this as a marketer too, but I think Twitter is a good example of why we should keep testing new marketing channels and social media platforms, and not become reliant on using the status quo of our marketing strategies. When our marketing and advertising choices become redundant in planning, then we become lazy and stop experimenting. We should constantly push to seek out new marketing opportunities for our companies and clients. Remember Friendster, MySpace or Second Life, as being the top social channels in their day? There were no scandals with those platforms, but eventually, others came along that replaced them.
Social Media Platforms to Try in 2022
Twitter was never a great traffic driver of customers to websites for marketers advertising their products, as Facebook, Google Ads and SEO have been, as you can see from DataReportal's article that highlighted Statcounter and HootSuite's social media report above, but Twitter had become a major part of the marketing ecosystem in strategy planning for marketers. Marketers have used Twitter as part of their company brand positioning, PR outreach and customer engagement. Now, with the implosion of Twitter's public challenges, marketers have to jump, if they want to protect their company's image, while Elon's leadeship instability doesn't wash on to their brand. Enter Mastodon and Post, the next wave of social media platforms.
It's too early to know if Mastodon and Post will become the next "big" social media platform to attract a volume that is massive, but as there were platforms before Facebook and Twitter, there will be others afterwards. It's worth taking a look and paying attention to these new platforms as they grow and attract more online users.
Conclusion
Keep testing new marketing channels and don't get caught only using the same social channels over and over again. As you can see from Statcounter, Pinterest has the same volume of web referrals as Twitter. Have you tried it? It's time to shake up your digital marketing plan and get out of the lazy rut of status quo digital strategies.