Over the last few years, Twitter has had its ups and downs. Today it’s the 16th most used social platform, well behind the likes of Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Snapchat. While user numbers have grown modestly over the years, revenue hasn’t matched up. And, Twitter’s efforts to launch news monetisation products hasn’t worked.

If you are trying to leverage Twitter for your business, you may have struggled to generate engagement and build meaningful relationships with your followers there. But, things seem to be changing.

With Elon Musk buying his $2.64 billion share in the company and the news that it’s finally creating an edit button, it’s clear the social platform is gearing up for a new era of catching-up innovation. It’s also expecting an annual growth rate of 20 percent by the end of next year presenting a revived opportunity for businesses to use Twitter.

So, what will Twitter’s renaissance era mean for brands?

The Musk effect

With Elon Musk joining as shareholder, he’s called out revenue as being an important feature of Twitter’s refined strategy. While Twitter is one of the most engaged platforms, it drives the lowest revenues of all the social giants. Alluding to revenue usually refers to ads, so we’re keeping our eyes peeled for Twitter to potentially revamp its ads platform. For brands, this would create new opportunities to reach consumers.

An important part of improving Twitter ads may come via enforcing account verification as he recently tweeted about authenticating real humans. This points towards a better quality audience for advertisers to go after. It  could mean better ROI if he does follow through.

Similarly, Twitter users have long asked for an edit button. Now the company says it’s coming. 

While the edit button itself is still in testing, it’s expected users will have a 30-minute window after publishing a tweet to edit, delete the whole tweet or even start over. It’s also anticipated other users will be able to see the version history, including original content. 

For brands, an edit button means more control over social narratives. It’s the opportunity to edit typos from human error and update well-performing posts to capitalise on reach and engagement. The edit can ultimately reach more users and create more meaningful interactions with followers. It will also remove the pressure of having social content set in stone on Twitter forever. Therefore, alleviating one of the limitations to using Twitter – the permanency of Tweets.

Using Twitter as a business leader

The second opportunity is for business leaders themselves. An increasing number of CEOs are flocking to Twitter. Some of the most popular profiles on the platform. Research also shows that the vast majority of people who follow Twitter profiles from an SME intend to purchase from the business. This reveals a great opportunity for leaders to leverage personality. It’s time to let quirks shine through while adding credibility to the wider company at the same time.

For a business leader, it’s important to define your expertise. So, choose a strong and succinct key message, be authentic. Don’t shy away from joining the conversation.

Telstra’s outgoing chief executive Andy Penn and Salesforce’s chief executive Pip Marlow are great examples of leaders leveraging Twitter well. Their opinions on Twitter are exactly that – theirs. Neither Penn nor Marlow use the platform to solely push branded business messaging. Instead they lead with their personalities, which has earned them an impressive, engaged following. 

Using Twitter as part of your brand’s thought leadership approach, leaders have the potential to really engage with the conversation, and likely win a few new customers in the process.

Now’s the time to give it a try

Although you’ve probably seen higher engagement rates on other social media platforms in the past, you shouldn’t rule Twitter out. The frenzy of media attention about Twitter could mean that they see an influx of new signups to the platform, increasing the reach of your content and ads. In the last 18 months, Twitter has stepped up its game, released new features and made big promises on how it can help creators and brand owners connect with wider audiences. 

When it comes to executing your Twitter strategy there are several platforms, including Metigy, that can be used to discover real-time insights for your business’ marketing mix. If you’re looking for new ways to share content, engage with customers and get in front of new audiences, it could be time to join the Twitter bandwagon as it enters its (potential) renaissance era. 

David Weinberger is the head of growth marketing at Metigy.