The acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk at the end of October 2022 has been followed by its share of changes and controversies, abundantly relayed by the media (see, i.e., iptwins.com, 2022-11-16).
On December 18, Twitter announced a ban on “free promotion” of third party, competing social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Mastodon. A few days earlier, Twitter had suspended Mastodon’s official account (Twitter.com/Mastodon). It has since been restored.
The announcement was as follows:
The announcement has since been removed. The future will tell us whether these new rules will be abandoned or included in Twitter’s new terms of use.
The omnipresence of social media often makes them unavoidable for the promotion of a business. In 2021, the France Num Barometer (Francenum.gouv.fr) indicated that 66% of the SME and Very small enterprises in France had a standalone website promoting their business outside of social media. It this percentage is growing (it was at 37% in 2020), it also indicates that some companies base their online presence and online promotion solely on social media platforms.
Whatever the outcome of Twitter’s ban project, It reminds us that although the social media platforms are powerful tools for expression, exchange and promotion, they are nonetheless managed by private companies that set the rules. These rules may evolve against the interest of economic actors promoting their business on said platforms.
A presence on the main social media platforms is essential to promote one’s business online. However, being in control of one’s online presence through a standalone website, associated with a securely managed domain name is as important, and complementary.
If we consider the example of the new rules mentioned by Twitter in its -now removed- announcement of the 18th of December 2022, the rules prohibited the promotion of one’s Facebook page or Instagram account on Twitter, but did not prohibit to publish an URL pointing to a standalone commercial website.
The IP Twins teams are available to assist you in securing the online presence of your brand.
