Are B2B Companies Fleeing Twitter?

Short answer: No. 

In fact, it looks like most B2B marketers don’t foresee any major changes to their marketing strategies on the back of billionaire Elon Musk’s recent takeover of Twitter.

After Musk acquired the popular social media platform late last month, we’ve seen some celebrities leave the platform. As the days have gone by, more and more are speaking out against the approach the new administration seems to be taking.

Inevitably, this got us all thinking about the implications of these changes on the B2B side of things.

So we asked B2B marketers who use Twitter (both personally and professionally) and this is what they had to say:

Politics Won’t Keep Marketers Away

Politics on Twitter seems to be a top concern for many users. Musk describes himself as a “free-speech absolutist” and has repeatedly committed himself to protecting freedom of expression on the platform. Some users have interpreted this to mean he intends to roll back Twitter’s existing conduct policies and let hate speech run rampant.

While more than one-fifth of respondents in our survey said they would leave Twitter for political reasons, it seems most marketers are confident any change in Twitter’s political dynamic won’t impact the marketing side of the business. Almost 80% of respondents said they wouldn’t leave the platform for political reasons.

Neither Will the Cost of Doing Business

Of course, there are non-political reasons for leaving Twitter, too. One of Musk’s top priorities is adding new revenue streams to make Twitter profitable (the platform has only run a profit in 8 of the last 10 years, according to The New York Times). The billionaire initially floated the possibility of charging $20 for blue-check verification to help raise funds.

The proposal was met with serious backlash, which was shared among users. Nevertheless, it seems that most marketers are not particularly concerned by this update. According to our results, 52.6% of marketers are willing to pay $20 for Twitter verification. 

Musk has since retracted this proposal, but he still intends to introduce other revenue-generating initiatives. While this could still increase the cost of doing business, it doesn’t seem to have deterred most marketers. 

More than 80% of marketers in our survey intend to stay on Twitter, while just 17.6% are planning to leave. Finally, less than 3% of users have actually made the switch to a new platform, a sign that some of those who are currently considering leaving Twitter may end up staying after all.

The More Things Change …

This is all consistent with a broader view among marketers that life on Musk’s Twitter will mostly be business as usual. While many of our survey respondents still advise taking a cautious approach to the acquisition and monitoring any possible changes to the user experience, it appears most of them aren’t going to be making any radical changes to their B2B marketing strategies any time soon. 

Almost 74% of respondents said they will keep using Twitter the same way they did before, while just 8.8% plan to take their social media campaigns elsewhere.

There’s a lot of noise out there right now surrounding Elon Musk and Twitter. But from the sound of it, most B2B companies aren’t anticipating any big changes to Twitter’s marketing and advertising arm.