Social Media
If You Want a Chance at Winning, You Have to Play the Game
A lesson in levelling up your social media content
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Like so many people, I was about to take the coward’s way out.
Declaring that “Twitter is dying” and blaming Elon Musk for killing it, I was ready to toss in my cards and look for another platform.
Stupid, really.
Of course Twitter’s not dying — do you really think one of the most successful businessmen in the world would spend $44 billion on a business venture and then just let it die?
Sure, Twitter’s going through some changes, and metamorphoses can be painful and difficult, but what we’re looking at now is an exciting period of experimentation and transformation that I think will lead to massive growth and innovation in the future.
To bail now would be to miss a huge opportunity.
The real reason my Twitter engagement was tanking was because I was refusing to change.
I had all these preconceived ideas about how Twitter ought to be.
Mainly based on how it used to be!
I thought every change Elon made was a terrible idea and a huge mistake.
I wondered whether upgrading to a ‘verified’ Twitter Blue membership would help revive my ailing account, but resented paying for what I considered to be blackmail.
If Elon Musk was penalising accounts that didn’t have a blue tick, I was damned if I was going to bow down to that and pay the bastard money!
But then I read an article by a writer who managed to grow a brand new Twitter account from 0 to over 2000 followers in just a few short months, multiplying his engagement exponentially and successfully monetising his account in the process.
What made the difference for him was when he started tweeting longer posts.
His engagement shot through the roof.
Of course, only Twitter Blue users can tweet longer posts.
This guy made me realise that if I didn’t level up my game, I was going to be left behind and it would be nobody’s fault but mine.
I couldn’t blame Musk.
It’s his game.
If he wants to change the rules, that’s his prerogative.
Whether to play by the new rules or drop out of the game altogether, that’s my prerogative.
If you want a chance at winning, you have to play the game.
If playing the game means paying for a blue tick, so be it.
Being a fully paid-up, verified Twitter Blue member doesn’t automatically mean more engagement.
It doesn’t guarantee success.
What it does give you is various opportunities that other members don’t have.
It’s what you do with those opportunities that counts.
It’s no good tweeting in the same way you’ve always done.
You have to use your newly acquired powers wisely.
The ability to post longer tweets.
The ability to post longer replies.
The chance to appear higher in other people’s timelines.
It’s all still pointless if your content is crap, and if you don’t interact with other users by replying intelligently to their tweets, so you have to up your game, but upgrading certainly gives you the chance to do this.
So that’s where I’m at right now.
Exciting times filled with potential.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
In the meantime, the takeaway for everyone here is, whatever social media platforms you’re using, keep your ear to the ground, keep your finger on the pulse and move with the changes as they happen.
You can either be a failure with stories about the ‘good old days’ of whatever platform, or you can be a success story who adapted to the ever-changing rules and thrived.
The choice, as they say, is ours.
