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Hiya,

it seems like every week another facepalm-worthy report surfaces on what’s going on inside of Twitter. What can we make of that as solopreneurs?

In today’s edition: 3 marketing takeaways for solo business from the tantrums at Twitter.

Let’s get into it!

Elon’s Messed up Twitter, Now What?

It’s been a good year since Elon Musk bought Twitter. Ever since, there’ve been boisterous updates, confusing changes, and a whole lot of firings.

Twitter is not what it used to be.

On a slightly more positive note, the events at Twitter offer helpful takeaways for building a solo business online. In that sense, Twitter’s demise might be the best thing to happen to the ecosystem in a while.

Let’s explore.

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1) Platforms Are Fickle - Your Marketing Strategy Needs to Account For That

The number 1 takeaway here is, yet again, how dependent we can get on social media platforms. Imagine you spend years, or even a decade, building your audience and reputation on a platform to then have all that be upended over a change in ownership and direction.

These changes at Twitter are different from the level of change you need to write off as life happening.

As a user, you’re locked into the platform, its policies, and algorithmic distribution. Unless you want to lose your audience, you’re stuck on there.

While celebrities can leave Twitter and get lauded for their principles, it’s a different story for smaller creators with less brand equity. What do you do, when you have 3,486 followers and have just started to eke out a living through Twitter?

It’s an uncomfortable situation to be in. Unless you want to create a crisis in your business, you’re stuck on there until you’ve got an alternative. It’s the same with every social media platform. Twitter made it very visible, though.

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2) Algorithms Play Favorites

Elon Musk created a system that shows you all of his tweets first. While that deserves at least an eyeroll, the kicker here is buried much deeper.

A tech CEO CAN actually have an effect on the algorithm. Interesting, when all we’ve been hearing is that algorithms are complicated to manage and difficult to tweak. BTW: the TikTok team can also decide who goes viral (and those are only the platforms that we know of).

The playing field was never even.

As a content creator you can hustle all you want to get in front of people. At the end of the day, who owns the algorithms calls the shots. You’re only ever reacting to the rules and expectations somebody else sets.

If you want to dive deeper into algorithms and marketing, read this post I wrote on algorithmic vs. non-algorithmic marketing.

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3) Running to Another Platform Won’t Fix It

When Meta announced Threads, a FOMO-fueled rush ensued to get be the first, the best, the everything on there. It was hilarious to watch.

Twitter, but without the problems sounded nice … but doesn’t address the problems above.

When one platform is on the way out, moving over to a new one without rethinking your marketing strategy runs the risk of recreating the same problems down the line - more dependency on a platform and algorithms.

This time, the owner is different but the rules of the game are very much the same. It’s better to avoid that.

How to Fix It

You need at least one marketing channel that you own.

Social media can be great to capture leads or interest, that’s your thing. Then, use your eyeballs on socials to direct people to an online property you own, for example your website or a newsletter. This applies to Twitter as to all the other social media platforms. You need to own your marketing channels.

Before I leave to get ready for Krampus day (yay!), here’s a newsletter recommendation for you. Inbound news has spicy takes on content creation and marketing. It’s a fun read that’s worth your time.

Happy Marketing,

Johanna 📣

For when you’re ready, here are three ways to work with me:

The Marketing Plan Guide - create your custom marketing strategy.

Show Me Your Work - solutions-focused 1:1 consulting with Johanna.

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