A few days ago a long-term client came to us with this:
“(We) have made the decision to stop using the social media platform X as it does not align with our ethical values.”
And it had us stop and think for a moment. Immediately we weren’t overly surprised – only the day before had I personally been overwhelmed with an influx of followers over on BlueSky, another platform tooting itself as the Twitter replacement. The first thought there was, what on earth is going on now? Has another insulin company lost a good chunk of their stock shares? Has Elon Musk finally lost his mind? Is the block button really a thing of the past?
Well. Actually.
On the 16th October, X’s Engineering account had this to say:
“Soon we’ll be launching a change to how the block function works. If your posts are set to public, accounts you have blocked will be able to view them, but they will not be able to engage (like, reply, repost, etc.).”
Now we’ve already talked about how this might go down, the legal implications and also, financial ones for X, and I for a while didn’t actually believe they would go ahead with it. But it seems Elon is on the move and determined to create his personally coined “digital town square.” However, we’ve known he was going to do this for some time, this was news a few weeks ago, maybe everyone felt the same way as I did-
Ah but wait, something else came out on the 16th October too:
Essentially, X changed their terms of service in regard to AI training, specifically their AI, Grok, and if you know anything or are in any way a part of the creative communities, you know how controversial that is.
The above image is the main clause it changed. And the implication is that it explicitly allows X to use your posts and any attached media — including images, videos, and their audio — for the training of AI models such as Grok. It will be in effect on 15th November.
So that explains the mass exodus to BlueSky (about half a million in a day joined, by the way), and honestly, as a creative myself paired with the email from our client, it’s got me thinking.
What do your socials say about your business?
We all know that people judge your business based on their social presence these days, from what you post, to how you speak to your customers there. It’s important that you’re aware of it. But what if potential prospects started to judge you based on WHICH platforms you use?
Say a customer pulls out of X because they don’t believe it aligns with them ethically, does that then change how they feel about your business because YOU’RE using it?
It’s no secret that Elon Musk leans more on the republican side of politics, only the other day was it revealed that he donated a staggering $70million to Trump’s Presidential Campaign, and we’ve all seen that really memeable picture of the guy hopping up and down behind him at one of his rallies. It’s also well known that he’s made some pretty awful tweets in the past in regard to LGBTQ+ folk, don’t believe us? Well…
So, with all that said, what does that say about how people view YOU? A user of a platform that funds all of the above, indirectly. Could your customers make a decision about your business based on that? Maybe-
Boycotts, boycotts, boycotts…
We know them well, and really, it’s of the same mind as to whether you should ditch X or not. We all know if you take a cheeky trip to Starbucks or McDonalds at the moment you probably shouldn’t post it all over your social media accounts, at least, if your customers are people who care about Israel’s military offensive at the moment. If they do? Well, you’re showing them that you’re willing to indirectly fund their war effort which could significantly harm your relationship with them.
But you didn’t know! Or: it doesn’t matter THAT much right?
To your customers it’s important, and what’s important to them should be important to you.
Up until now boycotts have mainly revolved around purchasing things. For example, I got burned for buying and playing that Harry Potter game and putting it on my socials. My bad, I should have read the room regarding who my audience is, and it was a lesson learned as I got a few angry messages saying how I’ve “funded JK Rowling and her anti-trans movement.” Thankfully my audience trusts me and knows me better, and many were forgiving, but make that mistake again? They probably won’t be.
But now, potentially, this audience judgement has spread to the social media you use. Sure, many would probably judge you if you proudly stated that you use Truth Social, the social media platform owned by Trump Media & Technology Group. Yeah, that’s THE Trump, by the way. But that’s pretty obvious right?
But for a platform that’s been, up until now, a tad more neutral? It’s rather a new phenomenon.
Know your Audience
That’s the killer right there.
These days, knowing your audience’s values is more important than ever. Sure, it was important before, but these days with social media, every part of you is up for show.
What you need to do as a business is list values that are important to you and narrow them down to three, and then ensure that any and everything you do aligns with them. That way, not only will you find an audience that aligns with those values, but you won’t stray from them either and end up in a sticky situation where you’ve upset someone and in turn, lost your customers’ trust.
What this also means is that you need to be more stringent about the social media platforms you’re on.
You should research which social media platforms you want to use anyway, as your target audience won’t be on every platform, and it’s a waste of energy if you’re on a platform that they’re not. So, keep in mind that when you do this research, read recent news about the platform, look at the values of that platform and its owners and ask yourself, do they align with mine? And do they align with my audience’s?
If the answer is no, then perhaps you should think twice.
The future of X
Perhaps you’re asking now, if you’re still there, whether you should ditch X or not. My advice? Hang on for now. Since Musk’s acquisition of the platform, there have been an array of ups and downs, and many other platforms have been lauded as the saviour replacement: Mastodon, Threads, BlueSky… however, it can’t hurt to start establishing yourselves on these other platforms just in case. Why not look around and see which one takes your fancy?
Threads is great if you already have Instagram and Facebook, as it’s highly likely that your Insta audience is there, and it’s easy to set up through your Meta accounts. The three work well together, which makes using them seamless. As a small business, we like seamless.
At Gwe Cambrian Web we’ve briefly talked about Mastodon when it first gained popularity almost two years ago (yes, it’s been that long since Musk’s takeover), but it’s important to remember that Mastodon is neither a replacement for X nor a decentralised copy of it. So, if you want a like-for-like X replacement, it may be a little frustrating to use at first! But it’s very likely your X audience are there already!
Finally, BlueSky! I personally use BlueSky, and it is the favourite of the month in terms of X replacements. However, it’s HEAVILY artist/creative focussed, so perhaps isn’t suitable for a business that isn’t. It started out as an invite only platform, meaning users either had to apply for a code to access it, or get one from a user already on the platform. This is no longer the case, but it is branded as X’s ethical cousin:
“Bluesky is an open social network that gives creators independence from platforms, developers the freedom to build, and users a choice in their experience. We’re so excited to have so many new people join us!”
“At Bluesky, we take online safety seriously. If you want to block someone, you can! It’s your experience to customize.”
In fact, over the few days after those string of announcements from X, they’ve all but been contradicting them in their own messaging. How they don’t rely on AI, how you can block people, and how you have a choice over your feed.
So why not take a look and see if these platforms take your fancy? But also, just in case, don’t deactivate your X account just yet.
In fact, if you want to keep it but keep safe in the meantime, there are a couple of things you can do!
If you want to avoid the blocking problem, you can make your account private. Sure, it’s not ideal if you want to market yourself, but it at least means that the only people who see your account are people who you want seeing your account. People who follow you.
Just head to More>Settings>Privacy and Safety>Audience, media and tagging.
When there you can opt to protect your posts and your videos!
To avoid your posts from being used to train Grok?
Just head to More>Settings>Privacy and Safety>Grok.
And ensure that you untick the box to allow your posts and interactions to be used to train the AI!
So, X is once again in the news for all the wrong reasons, but hey, we’ve been through this a couple of times now, and deciding if it’s just another trend or if X truly is a thing of the past is something only time will tell. So sit tight, get the popcorn, and watch on!
