Twitter users don't want to call it X—inside the platform's marketing challenge

Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo and Warner Bros. Entertainment are among the many X users that just can't stop calling the newly renamed platform “Twitter.” The social giant's rebrand, which took place in July after Elon Musk did away with the iconic blue bird logo, is taking some time to catch on. These brands continue to call X by its former name on their official pages. Even the POTUS account for the president of the United States refers to “tweets” being archived as part of its reminder in its bio that official government communications on the site formerly known as Twitter are recorded in the Library of Congress. This reminder also serves as a recognition of how important the platform has been in the public square, so much so that a president‘s tweets—or “posts”—are saved for posterity. This branding confusion seems to be commonplace, with a new poll finding that 69% of U.S. X users still refer to the platform as Twitter and to posts as “tweets.” The survey, which included 1,047 U.S. adults over the age of 18, was conducted online in the United States by The Harris Poll and Ad Age Research from Sept. 6 to Sept. 7. Ad Age commissioned the survey to see how well the X rebrand is going and what it means for the future of the company. LVMH, Jimmy Choo and Warner Bros. Entertainment were not immediately available for comment on whether the use of Twitter in their X bios was an oversight or if they would change the wording at some point. The bright spot for the X rebrand is that 79% of respondents in the Harris Poll/Ad Age survey were aware of the change, even if the majority were still calling it Twitter. This summer, Meta launched its text-based Twitter competitor Threads. According to the survey, 57% of respondents were aware of Threads and 47% of them created a Threads account upon launch. The survey also found that 60% of U.S. adults who created a Threads account now access the app at least “somewhat frequently”—at least a few times a month—even after the hype died down around the platform. Also, 69% of X and Threads users in the U.S. said they preferred X. Related: Inside Threads’ first month of brand deals “X, formerly Twitter, isn’t just any company. Twitter was, and X is, a powerful and influential driver of culture and conversation,” said Jamie Gilpin, chief marketing officer at Sprout Social, a social media analytics firm. “It’s even turned never-before-heard terms like ‘tweet,’ ‘retweet,’ and ‘hashtag’ into common vernacular. “Twitter becoming X is as much of a culture shift for consumers as it is a rebrand for the company,” Gilpin said, “so it may take some time for the new name to be colloquially adopted.” This week, a report from Brand Keys, a consumer research firm, found that X had the largest fall in brand loyalty sentiment among the 100 brands it tracks, dropping from No. 47 to No. 92. The report speculated that the rebrand could explain the precipitous decline since last year’s report. When Musk initiated the rebrand to X in July, it was seen as both a brash move by a billionaire as well as a desecration of a company that had carved an important space for itself in the social media world for the past 17 years. X declined to comment for this story. But Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino have publicly been excited about the prospect of leaving old Twitter behind. “If you stay Twitter, or you stay whatever your previous brand is, change tends to be only incremental, and you get graded by a legacy report card,” Yaccarino said in an interview with CNBC last month. But the transition has been choppy. The new X icon has not replaced the blue bird everywhere; for instance, it is still the logo used on websites to let readers know where to post links. If a person searches Google for “X brand guidelines,” one of the top links still references “Twitter for business,” though it links to the official “X for business” page. Ad Age Media Summit Hear from industry leaders during October event in NYC Register here The Twitter rebrand was just one in a long line of major shakeups to come from Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the company last year. Musk’s policies have loosened the rules on what type of behavior is considered acceptable among users, which led some brands to fear the platform would become too divisive for big ad campaigns. Musk also took a wrecking ball to the staff at Twitter, firing about two-thirds of the 7,500 employees. Since taking over, Musk acknowledged that the site had seen a decline of about 50% in ad revenue as some brands pulled back. Now, advertisers and media partners have to get on board with the rebrand. “I think it’s a little bit yet to be determined how the rebrand will go,” said Carla Bourque, CEO of Rebrandly, a platform that manages online link-shortening technology for brands on social media. “Brand equity takes time, and Twitter and the Twitter bird and icons have evolved in consumers’ minds over the past 17-plus years.” “One thing is for sure people loved the Twitter bird and that symbol of friendly, open and shared communication,” Bourque said. “I don’t know that same shared combination, of shared characteristics, is conveyed with the ‘X.’” From a branding perspective, X has some negative connotations to it. For many, X is literally an unknown variable in math equations, Bourque said, and it’s the icon used to exit out of something online. Brands and media partners need to adjust, too. Last month, X sent its new brand guidelines to ad agencies to explain how they should use the X logo and what new terms to use instead of “tweets” and retweets,” (now post and repost), among other instructions. In broadcast, for example, leagues such as the NFL and networks such as ESPN need to point fans to X, not Twitter, to converse about their programming. “This document is the beginning of our brand journey as X,” read the brand report to advertisers. “We know many partners use our logos in a variety of places to help signpost where your audience can find you.” For ESPN, some shows use an ‘X/Twitter’ logo to get audiences familiar with the change, according to Kaitee Daley, VP of social media, content optimization and ESPN Next. “The current guidance is to utilize ‘X/Twitter’ for audiences who are less likely to know about the rebrand at this stage,” Daley said by email, “and [we use] ‘X’ in spaces like other social platforms, where it’s fair to assume a greater level of awareness. We’re also encouraging usage of ‘posts’ and ‘reposts’ over tweets and retweets.” “Posting and reposting is more platform-agnostic terminology and since X is not our leading platform for fan engagement, I think the shift in verbiage helps to acknowledge that sports figures and brands are sharing information beyond X,” Daley said. Aside from the actual brand image, Musk and his team are trying to get partners on board with a new way of thinking about X. Musk has started referring to new metrics that he is using to define success on the platform, such as “unregretted” time on the platform. It is possible that if X can show that more people are satisfied while using the site, that could counter claims that there has been more negativity on the site since Musk bought it. On that front, the Harris Poll/Ad Age survey has some insights, too: 59% of U.S. respondents who use X agreed that it was “time well spent.” Meanwhile, 49% of X users agreed that content on X is “generally more negative now than before Elon Musk’s acquisition.”

Twitter users don't want to call it X—inside the platform's marketing challenge

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