Should we stay on X? Has the audience moved to LinkedIn, Bluesky or Threads? An original Schwedin Analysis.
Should you continue to have an account on X? Is your target audience still active? Has X been replaced by a different platform and if so, which one? Many of our clients have been asking for our advice on the future of X, in particular where they can interact with Swiss media. Because X demographics are becoming increasingly intransparent, Die Schwedin. set itself the goal of following developments closely and will monitor the social media accounts of selected media professionals over the coming months.
Twitter, currently known as X, held a longstanding status as the real-time newsfeed. Big name politicians, companies, global institutions, sport and film celebs, journalists, and media outlets twittered, tweeted and democratically rubbed shoulders. When we wanted to know what was happening right now, we really did check Twitter first.
And then Elon Musk was controversially snookered into buying the vastly influential, but largely unprofitable, platform. He boorishly entered wielding his iconic sink – letting his new power sink in, or kitchen sinking it by daring to that bad news flow. And flow it did! Botched initiatives, sackings, accusations of racism left many rubbing their hands and hailing X`s death. All that was left, it seemed, was naming the Phoenix.
While it is undeniable X has experienced seismic tremors – including in Switzerland. For example Nestlé is no longer active on X in this country and Lindt & Sprüngli, Graubünden Tourism and several authorities, including the canton of Appenzell and several accounts in the canton of Zurich, have also said goodbye to the Musk platform – can we declare its demise? Even though many ironically tweeted their exit, the question remains: is the platform still active? And while several other platforms have been puffing up their feathers; Bluesky, Threads, and LinkedIn have yet to take flight.
Need for insightful answers
All this has led many of our clients to ask us: should we stay on X? Should we open a new account elsewhere? Has our audience moved to LinkedIn? Where can we interact with media professionals? Given the growing intransparent nature of X, you now need to pay to see your own metrics, we thought we would do a research experiment of our own to provide more insightful answers.
As of December 2023, we are tracking journalists who have an active presence on X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, and/or Threads and are represented in each of the three Swiss language regions. Our primary goal is to determine where journalists are actively engaged with platforms with the hope to identify clusters or trends. We plan to diligently track the same group over the next few months to help us to identify any emerging trends and will publish the results here regularly.
Stay tuned for updates and findings in the months ahead.
By following our journey, you'll gain valuable insights into the evolving landscape of journalism in Switzerland and beyond.
Read the first part of our blog series to find out how a gap is opening up even on social media and how well X competitors Bluesky, Threads and LinkedIn are being received by Swiss media professionals.
