- X recently added two new paid tiers to their subscription options.
- X has stated that paying for the higher tiers boosts your visibility on the platform.
- Understanding how these tiers impact performance is crucial in deciding how much effort to give the platform.
- With over 500 million active users, a relevant X strategy could be very valuable in your niche.
- Paying for a Premium subscription will help you get your content to the top of the list, but you still need to post things that people find interesting.
Over the past year, we have seen a drastic change in one of the internet’s leading social media players. Twitter, now known as “X,” has an entirely different name, staff, owner, algorithm, tier system, user base, and advertiser base. What once was an obvious addition to your social media efforts is now being questioned by major industries. Is X worth the effort anymore?
As marketers, you can put endless amounts of effort into any marketing vertical, so it’s essential to strategize carefully and put your efforts in the areas where it will make a difference. We’ve looked into the current state of X (formerly Twitter) and wrote this blog to help business owners and marketers decide if X is still a worthy social media investment.
X Premium
When Elon Musk first bought Twitter, he implemented a paid system called Twitter Blue. This changed the way the company looked at verification. The infamous Blue Check was offered to those who paid for Twitter Blue and verified their information, proving they were not a bot. Twitter Blue also came with other benefits, but the main one was verification.
Many started to be concerned that the app was becoming Pay-To-Play, as users who paid for Twiter Blue seemed to be getting a boost in the Twitter algorithm. Twitter Blue has been developing for about a year and is now known as X Premium. Starting on October 27th, 2023, X began offering new tiers for the X Premium system. There is now a Basic, Premium, and Premium+ tier. Our question when hearing about this was, does paying for the higher tiers give you an advantage in the algorithm?
Does having a paid subscription to X change your visibility on the platform?
The short answer is yes; X has said that:
- Basic subscribers receive a small boost to their replies ($3 a month)
- Premium subscribers receive a larger boost to their replies ($8 a month)
- Premium+ subscribers receive the largest boost to their replies ($16 a month)
Elon Musk has also said that “only verified accounts will be eligible in For You recommendations.” X does prioritize visibility for users who pay for X Premium and even gives you a more significant boost at the highest tiers. They are “testing the levels at which we prioritize content from Premium subscribers relative to the other factors we consider in conversation rankings.” Giving money to X will, without a doubt, give you prioritized visibility over other users on the platform.
If you use X often or have a large number of followers, the benefits of paying for a Premium tier could be exciting because you receive:
- Prioritized ranking in replies
- The ability to show up in “for you” recommendations
- Possibly higher boost for posts with links in them
- Monetization
If these benefits are attractive to you, it might be time to give in to the new X system. Even when it was called Twitter Blue, users were testing if the paid services led to a positive change in analytics. It was easy to see the evidence very quickly: paying for X does help you perform better.
To some, this information may be devastating; a platform they once loved to engage with has become a place where whoever pays the most money gets an advantage. To others, this might be an opportunity. Even with all the changes, both good and bad, X has a massive number of monthly users, and paying for a Premium subscription could prove to be beneficial. There’s a lot of competition but also a lot of potential, which brings us to the next point we want to cover.
What does it take to make X a valuable addition to your social media efforts?
You won’t be Twitter famous overnight just by dishing out the $16 a month for X Premium+. The effectiveness of X depends on your brand and where you put your efforts. It will take some time and effort, but building a following on X can be worth it for the right niche.
Monthly users
X has a massive amount of monthly users. They are claiming to have around 500 million active users as of 2023. If this is true, paying for X Premium would put you around the top 0.002% of user visibility. This is a massive advantage if Twitter is a way for you, your brand, or your business to build traffic and authority. Now, not all 500 million of those users are interested in what you have to say, post, or sell. Understanding your niche and how it performs on X matters and will make a difference in deciding the level of effort you give the platform.
Engagement
So far, in 2023, the average engagement rate across industries for X is 0.035%. This number comes in below Facebook’s engagement rate of 0.06% and Instagram’s engagement rate of 0.47% percent (all engagement metrics are measured by followers). Although X has a lower engagement rate online compared to other platforms, there is still an opportunity to grow a consistent and excited follower base.
So far in 2023, the best-performing industries on X based on their engagement rate are Sports, Higher Education, and Nonprofits. If you fall into one of these categories, we recommend you keep X in your marketing strategy and start (or keep) posting 3-4 times per week.
But don’t count yourself out if you’re not in one of these three industries. It’s true you will probably see more engagement if you are in one of these categories, but there are still plenty of X users that could be interested in you even if you don’t make it into the top 3.
Give the people what they want
Engagement is important, but it doesn’t matter unless you are able to grow your follower count. Taking advantage of the Premium+ boost and engaging with other people’s content is a reliable way to grow your follower count. However, you still need to post content that’s interesting and interact with people related to your niche; otherwise, your efforts will be wasted.
In 2022, the most preferred type of content on Twitter was “Informative,” with Relevant and Engaging content coming in second and third. This goes to show that people want to be informed. If you’re working in a field where you can provide others with informative content that teaches them something new, that’s the place to start with X.
The best way to use X is to build your reputation as an authority or thought leader in your niche. It can also be an excellent tool for community management. Ultimately, in any niche, you want to provide value to others. On X, you can provide that value through informative, relevant, and engaging content that makes you a reliable source in your industry. Paying for a Premium subscription would definitely help you get that content to the top of the list, but unless you post things that people actually find interesting, your efforts will be wasted.
After our research, we came up with three questions you should be asking yourself before paying for that Premium+ tier and putting the hours into an X strategy.
- Does your niche have high engagement on X?
- Would the content you post be insightful or engaging to users?
- Would the time it takes to grow an audience be worth the extra engagement?
Yes, it’s all different now
X is now a completely different platform than it was just a year ago. If you’ve been putting time into your Twitter strategy but haven’t changed anything in the past year, it’s time to reevaluate. Paying for the premium tiers will give you an advantage in the algorithm. Unfortunately, it is exceedingly difficult to perform well on X without a paid subscription.
However, if you want to build your reputation as an authority/thought leader, it could be a valuable platform for you to use. Paying for an X premium tier is annoying, but it could give you a powerful advantage on a platform with an incredibly high number of monthly users. You need to make sure you have informative and interesting content that you can provide to people on X who actually want to see it. As marketers, it’s important to make sure we adapt to the inevitable changes on the internet and don’t waste time and money on a strategy that will never produce results.
Here at Redefine, we have a number of tools that can help you add to your marketing strategy. If you’re interested in growing your online engagement or have questions about how we can help, don’t hesitate to reach out today.
