Marketing professionals comment on modifications to ‘X’

Indianapolis, Indiana – The social media platform formerly known as Twitter has undergone many changes this summer. It changed its name to “X” earlier this month. It got a rival in the form of “Threads,” a brand-new social media service introduced by Meta creator Mark Zuckerberg, in July.

“What Threads has in its favor is it starts with Facebook, which has almost three billion users and Instagram has over two billion users,” said Dr. Kim Saxton, a clinical professor of marketing with IU’s Kelley School of Business.

According to Saxton, the average American subscribes to and regularly uses seven different social media platforms, creating a more dispersed landscape.

After its launch on July 5, Threads surpassed 100 million users, but subscription rates have plateaued recently. By releasing a desktop version, Threads is attempting to rekindle interest.

“X” owner Elon Musk made changes to Twitter that drove some users away, including charging users for verification and floating the idea of removing the block feature.

“It’s just gotten so bizarre. It’s just so unpredictable, and there has just been so much drama, and people move away from drama, they don’t like it,” said Saxton.

According to Mike Gruszczynski, an associate professor of communication sciences at the IU School of Media, users frequently avoid social media platforms if they believe there is insufficient content control.

“One of the things that drives engagement is people hearing and seeing things that they are interested in, and maybe not hearing alternative viewpoints, things that make them uncomfortable,” said Gruszczynski.

Saxton claims that Threads lacks both the hashtag feature that other websites offer and the capability for advertising to interact with consumers.