Your X Twitter Smacked the S**t out of Threads
Bird, Breon O’Casey (1997) - Tate
July was a manic month in the history of social media. Meta's text app Threads was released, and Twitter's new logo, an X, stole the headlines a week later. Meta's Threads did see a superstar rise in its 93 million active users in just a week, but the fame and hype lasted no longer than a week when Elon Musk, the "space weirdo", stole the show with his very unexpected and definitely less iconic X logo.
The new brand enraged not only social media managers but everyone in the design, marketing, and all things in between sectors. There were floods of posts from every know-it-all saying how terrible the move was and that the X only cost $35 to make. The other argument made was how this was childish behaviour and a cry for cheap attention.
Well, it worked.
Suddenly, Threads was at the back of the queue of discussions and trends, and X took centre stage of memes and people's jokes. The memes were enough to sweep the carpet right from under Threads.
Threads is another pointless Clubhouse-alike app, and here is why:
It lacks legitimate organic growth. Every follower is just a duplicate from your existing Instagram followers. It is almost exclusive to Insta users.
It lacks search tools to explore and discover. You can't search for specific keywords or topics.
The app is forever embedded into Instagram and all its data. You can't fully delete it unless you delete Instagram.
And I think because of the above reasons and more, Meta's data showed that just ten days after its almighty launch, it lost over half of its 100 million users. Now, a month in, the hype has really died out, with 11 million users recorded on July 29th. No one is sharing their Threads posts on Instagram stories, and certainly no one cares enough to keep up with it.
The X lives to see another day of light.
Musk nailed it. He saw the competition and instead of trying to destroy a semi-functioning app, he simply created a new narrative that was worthy of any journalist, designer, and opinionated big-mouth's time.
The shock factor of the change and the absolute simplicity of the X shook the digital world. It may have gotten a lot of negative press, but it delivered on its purpose: to take away the light from an app that was only a hype.
Musk's move is not to be taken lightly, and I think it should be looked into as a marketing guide, branding, and competitive market strategy. I'm not a fan of anything that man touches, but this? This deserves a salute.
Well played, ma dude.
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Most people would think of Nike or Apple or alike brands when talking about iconic branding moves. For me, I think X is got to be top ten just for its level savageness alone. If you have a favourite branding moment feel free to share it my way.
PS: I decided to choose a piece of art to accompany this article ‘cause let’s face it, that logo be mank. And the sculpture makes my website look way nicer.
R x