By Erica Newell and Lauren Parker 

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If you’re anything like us, you’ve been following the turmoil surrounding the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk. Musk has been making swift organizational and platform changes that have caused many to question the safety and credibility of Twitter. Poorly communicated top-down mandates, major changes to the platform’s blue checkmark verification protocols, and an immediate rise in racist hate speech have made individuals and brands reconsider whether or not it makes sense to remain active on the social media channel. 

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While it’s still early on in the Elon Musk reign, there are a few things you and your organization should discuss and assess as you weigh your options and determine next steps: 

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• How valuable is Twitter to your organization?
• What are the benefits for your organization on Twitter?
• What are your social media goals? Does Twitter play a role?
• What are the values of your organization? Do they align with Twitter’s values?
• Who is your audience? Is your audience on Twitter? Does your audience value Twitter?

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Regardless of your situation, we recommend you take the following action:

• Pull your data history. Retrieve an archive of your Twitter history for posterity, in the event that the platform massively shifts or goes away.
• Dust off your crisis communications plan. Add a scenario in which imposter accounts troll you or your brand and devise a plan of action in that event. Also ensure your monitoring tools are set up to track these types of trolls. 

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At this moment in time, we aren’t seeing value in a knee-jerk reaction to leave the platform completely (resulting in the release of your brand’s account handle). And depending on what’s best for you and your brand, you may choose one of the following paths forward: 

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• Go quiet. Put your participation (tweets, engagement, comments, ads, etc) on pause while you monitor the impact and see what happens. Consider pinning a tweet to set that expectation with copy along the following lines: “We are putting a pause on our Twitter activity for the time being. Please check out our [Instagram/Facebook/LinkedIn] for company updates.”
• Go private. Switch your account to private as you work through a decision.
• Stay the course. Keep doing your thing and stick to your strategy while monitoring the day-to-day changes and updates from Musk.

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Taking a long range view, these events shouldn’t be cause for panic. Social media platforms will come and go, while evolving over time. At the end of the day, it’s the story and your message that matters more than the platform. 

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‍TLDR; it’s too early to tell what exactly is going to happen with Twitter and to make any final decisions about your brand/organization, but you should start evaluating your values and goals on the platform to inform your future decision making.