There’s been a lot of debate about how organisations use X/Twitter in recent months but what are the numbers?
Now, any data around any social media platform are notoriously opaque and in the coming months Ofcom will no doubt publish annual UK data.
Ahead of all that, I ran a survey to see where people are in the public sector and third sector with their corporate accounts.
The numbers while unscientific are fascinating.
In the public sector, a quarter are heading for the exit
It’s clear that there is a lot of reflection going on with the public sector corporate account.
For the public sector, a quarter are going or have gone. That’s a similar number for those who are staying put.
Those who have departed are three times as likely to do so on the quiet by simply stopping using it rather than making a grand public announcement.
For me, that’s a canny bit of judgement given the wall of abuse some organisations have been met with when they’ve publicly quit.
But just over half of organisations have yet to make their minds up.
In the third sector, two thirds are evaluating
There’s even more head scratching going on in the charity sector with X, formerly Twitter.
More than 60 per cent are evaluating their corporate presence. On top of that, one in 10 have decided to stay with almost a quarter going or gone.
Is this the right decision?
Of course, there is no universal correct decision for a corporate account. There is a trend to head to the exits for UK public sector and third sector but this was never going to be an overnight event. Platforms don’t work like that. They tend to grow slowly and then fade away.
There are several factors to take account of. Firstly, I’ve blogged that journalists and MPs are performing strongly on the platform. The same analysis showed that routine public sector content was failing to cut through.
So, would these numbers suggest there’s still a role for connecting with journalists and MPs? Absolutely. There’s been some talk about journos moving to Bluesky. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.
In any event, I’d be highly surprised if prominent MPs or Government departments left X/Twitter. This would leave the field clear for their political opponents.
What the data absolutely shows is that the tectonic plates of the internet are on the move.