What the Tech? Twitter to X

(ABC 6 News) – One of the internet’s most iconic names and logos is undergoing a change. Over the weekend, Twitter owner Elon Musk announced that Twitter will now be known as “X”. On the Twitter homepage the bird logo is replaced simply with the letter X. It is a massive shift in marketing and branding for the social network. X currently has over 200 million active daily users. The reaction was not mixed either. Twitter users largely hate the change and question why Musk would drop a name and logo recognized around the world.

Referring to Twitter as “X” will take some time. Tweets and re-tweets are now Xs and re-Xs I guess. The change comes as Twitter faces more and more competition from platforms doing what Twitter, or X, did and does.

“They definitely have an uphill battle in getting new users and keeping their current user base,” said Mailynne Calvin, a social media and branding expert.

“X, formerly Twitter, needs to do something different to its platform, for its users. Just changing the brand isn’t going to help the platform very much.”

The company’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino tweeted, or X’d that it’s the future state of unlimited interactivity. She cites changes in audio, video, messaging, payments, and banking. Also, the newly named platform will be powered by artificial intelligence.

“They need to do something different with the platform,” said Calvin. “There’s great technology there but they need to start implementing the things that they’ve said they’re going to do. To try to keep people on the platform but also give them a reason to even sign up.”

Twitter has always been a little different from Facebook and it once stood virtually alone in the micro-blogging space. Twitter made it easy to follow celebrities and newsmakers and to follow what people were saying by using hashtags. Recently, competitors Mastodon, Parler, Bluesky, T2, and now Meta’s Threads have launched to do what X does. Plus, none have differentiated themselves from one another. Calvin says, X must find ways to stand out in the micro-blogging platform suddenly crowded with competitors.

“Retention is going to continue to fall unless they do something different, create new features, do something different on the platform for users.”