Ominous signs for Twitter as marketers ditch platform

Twitter may be viewed as an essential marketing tool in some quarters but it appears to be losing its shine among social media marketers, with nearly half (46%) failing see the use of Twitter anymore, and over three quarters (79%) stating they no longer use the platform for employer or client social media campaigns.
The survey of more than 2,000 UK-based social media marketers, carried out by Hopper HQ, cites the main reason for marketers falling out of love with Twitter as being “a lack of useful engagement” on the platform.
The fact that nearly two thirds (60%) of marketing professionals are forced to spend at least two unpaid hours during the weekend managing social media does not help either.
When asked “how much, on average, would you estimate each client/your employer spend on Twitter ads on a monthly basis?”, the majority (72%) selected £0. In comparison, the average monthly ad spend on Instagram was £7,000, with Facebook averaging at £12,000 – varying between brand size and industry.
As well as the ‘lack of useful engagement’, respondents cited ‘trolling’ and ‘negative users’ as reasons that they did not see the platform as a useful marketing platform.
The survey also found that more than a third (39%) of respondents over the age of 35 prefer younger colleagues to handle social media.
When asked what they would like to change about social media platforms, four fifths (80%) said they would like live links to be added to Instagram, and nearly all (94%) said they would like an ‘edit tweet’ feature to be added on Twitter. Only 2% of people asked said they used Snapchat anymore for clients.
Hopper HQ co-founder Mike Bandar said: “It’s astonishing to see just how much time marketers are taking out of their weekday evenings and weekends to work. This appears to have become a necessary evil within our industry. One respondent even said that they worked up to 20 unpaid hours out of work. It’s a testament to how far marketing agencies and their teams go to meet client needs, but also shines the light on the need for better tools and methods to increase agency efficiency.”