Whatโs that weird black-and-white โXโ logo on your phone, and why canโt you find Twitter anymore? If you havenโt been following the news, you may have missed a major update to the social microblogging media, as owner Elon Musk recently changed the brand from the universally-recognized โTwitterโ to โXโ in his new vision to create a broader, wider-reaching tech platform.
But what does that mean for you? Why did Twitter change to X, what does the change to X entail, and how can you continue using Twitter/X effectively in the future as a small business owner? Plenty of people are asking these questions, and weโll do our best to lay out the basics.
Is X the same as Twitter?
Short answer? Yes. The simplest and most accurate explanation is that Elon Musk has rebranded the entire Twitter platform to now simply be called โXโ, but itโs fundamentally the same company. For the layperson, what they once knew as Twitter is now X, and thatโs about the long and the short of it.
The longer answer? Yes, but with a โbutโฆโ X may currently just be a rebrand of Twitter, but what Twitter โwasโ before the rebrand depends entirely on your perception of its current owner. Certainly, Twitter as a platform has been undergoing some major changes since being acquired by Musk, which may make it nearly unrecognizable to someone who started using the platform a decade ago: character counts have expanded, subscription services have been added, spaces have been created, and the fundamental business model is consistently shifting as the platform experiments with what works to bring in money.
Whatโs the difference between Twitter and X?
Honestly? Far less than there appears to be. When you see the updated X app and website, youโll notice plenty of visual changesโobviously the name has changed, and the iconic bird logo is gone as well, but even the internal branding has been updated extensively to reflect the new design ethos. This extends to the copy and UI as well, with anything related to โtweetingโ (tweets, retweets, quote tweets, etc) being rebranded to simply โposting.โ
But beneath these fairly extensive surface changes, very little has changed functionally within the service. If youโve been off Twitter/X for a while and are just coming back, youโll notice a lot of changes to everything from layout to search functionality to even features locked behind paywalls, but most of these changes were put in place before the X rebrand was even announcedโthe actual platform changes associated with the rebrand are fairly minimal. If youโve been using the app consistently and adjusting to Muskโs frequent tweaks and experiments, youโll likely notice very little functional difference in your day-to-day use.
Why did Twitter change to X?
So, if not much has actually changed with the rebrand beyond the name and the logo, you might be wondering why on Earth Musk made this update in the first place? Thatโs a great question, and one where the answer may not be incredibly satisfying, because as of right now we can only speculate based on Elon Muskโs own claims for the future, which have always been grandiose and not always come to fruition.
Elon Musk says that the rebrand to X has to do with his vision for the future of the companyโhe wants it to become an โeverything appโ that allows not just micro-posting like it was previously known for, but also serves as a hub for photos, video content, and even financial transactions. His argument is that the Twitter name made plenty of sense based on the original contextโposts that felt like โbirds tweetingโ–but is no longer sufficiently broad to capture the scope of his goals.
To some people, this argument may make sense. To others (and many business analysts), it feels like throwing out nearly 2 decadesโ worth of brand identity. But only time will tell if the rebrand to X will drive users out the door, or help manifest Muskโs โeverything appโ visionโand thereโs little sense speculating when we can be doing work now to build our own brands.
How to make the most of Twitterโs rebrand
At the end of the day, regardless of what Elon Musk wants to call it, Twitter/X is still one of the most important social media platforms out there. Just like itโs always been, the platform has a relatively small but extremely influential user base of journalists, business professionals, politicians, thought leaders, and regular posters that drive discourse and create conversation in just about every arena and industry.
As Musk continues to experiment and try to find the best way to monetize the platform, how small businesses engage and utilize Twitter/X will change seemingly every dayโand while this can be frustrating to those who just want to drive customers through their front door, it also gives enterprising entrepreneurs new opportunities to capture new audiences.
If you donโt have the time or energy to follow every change to the platform and just want the professionals to handle the hard work, Skol Marketingโs Minnesota-based team is here to help. To learn more about how we can help you make the most of not just Twitter/X but any and every social media platform, please donโt hesitate to contact the local social media experts at Skol Marketing.
