Mapping Twitter's social media footprint

As Twitter makes its Instagram debut, we look at the media giant's social media footprint. Turns out, it's just another brand!

This week, the micro-blogging site joined Instagram, expanding the social media footprint, announcing itself as a curated space where users can find screenshots of tweets. The idea stems from a colloquial saying in the digital world — Instagram is literally a screenshot of tweets — something that reflects in the first set of images posted by Twitter

As this move started creating a buzz in the digital world, we took a look at how Twitter is faring on other social media platforms, namely Facebook and LinkedIn. Spoiler alert: It's just another brand!

Facebook

With the number of likes on the platform touching almost 16 million, Twitter sure enjoys a fair share of popularity on Facebook. For as far as we could scroll, the feed is full of tweet screenshots that are optimised to suit the platform and the taste of its users. Colours grab attention and the curated user-generated content on the page seems to work well. Essentially, they turn tweets on their platform into creatives for their Facebook presence.

In between these, there are promotional posts where Twitter talks about their platform, shares updates and pushes branch accounts such as Twitter Movies, Twitter Gaming and Twitter Support. An interesting feature in all their screenshot posts is how they edit out the date and time. On Instagram, the platform seems to have a different approach — they are simply posting screenshots, sans editing. Twitter made its debut on Instagram on 4th of September, 2019 and would be interesting to see how a text dominated is making best use of photo-sharing platform.

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Going a little far ahead down memory lane, there is a visible change in the vibe on the page. Twitter used to post more about their achievements and collaborations. Interesting, while it took a while to scroll through the recent posts, the jump in time between 2018 and 2017 was fairly quick. The frequency of posts and the need to engage has surely shot up with time.

While the content shared in the earlier years was informative, it was not of much relevance to a common user beyond the advertised information. CTA could be seen in all posts, driving people from Facebook to Twitter. Now, elements like entertainment, need to trend and facilitate shareability have made their way into the mix. There has been a 360-degree turn in the state of affairs if one were to look at what they are posting now in 2019. Evolution is striking! It can also be seen as a change in content consumption trends among social media users.

#TwitterTips was a pretty used hashtag on the page back then. Twitter blog article links used to be shared very prominently around 2014-15, where the focus seemed to be on introducing people to Twitter and pushing them to give it a shot. The micro-blogging site has gone from 138 million monthly active users in 2012 (Q1) to 330 million monthly active users in 2019 (Q1). Twitter had joined Facebook as a page on January 5, 2012.

LinkedIn

On LinkedIn, Twitter appears to be a brand looking at portraying itself a desirable company, always on the lookout for new talent. The category of posts includes links to job-related information, details about various offices across the globe and experiences of those on the team. They also talk about the efforts put in making the platform, a safe space for all.