Twitter - shaking up the @Twitter Social Strategy

The @Twitter account had roughly 90 million followers and almost nothing to say. The brand account oscillated between strategies that never quite worked - scripted celebrity exchanges, corporate GIF replies, safe content that felt out of place on the platform it was promoting. By early 2018, it had largely stopped tweeting altogether.

Then it changed. Overnight.

The new strategy was simple: @Twitter should sound like Twitter. Self-aware, fast, fluent in the platform's humour and culture. No scripts. No brand-speak. Just a voice that felt like it belonged.

"FYI: there IS an edit button. (In your brain)" - 219K likes. "YOU: I'm going to bed in five minutes / TWITTER: lol k" - 100K likes. "Tweet the meaning behind your Twitter handle. We'll start. We're Twitter." - 75K quote tweets. A #tbt of the Fail Whale. A billboard in Times Square that just said "WOW." A GIPHY channel that racked up 4.9 billion views.

Pulsar documented the shift in a piece titled "How official Twitter got good at Twitter." That felt about right.