Despite many charities leaving X, formerly known as Twitter, it remains “business as usual” for the majority of organisations, a charity sector social media expert has said.
In a blog post published last week, digital impact consultant Madeleine Sugden said there was a “noticeable shift” in charities moving away from the Elon Musk-owned social media platform in November in reaction to privacy setting changes, Donald Trump winning the US election and another “small flurry” in January.
However, Sugden said that although more charities have left X since then, the majority of organisations remain on the platform.
She wrote that some “high-profile” exits from the platform – such as those of Mind and ACEVO – will not provoke a sector-wide shift unless more “powerhouses” like Macmillan, the British Red Cross, NCVO and even the Charity Commission also leave X.
500 charities now on Bluesky
Sugden noted in her blog that around 500 charities have now launched Bluesky accounts, an increase of 150 since January.
However, she added that it was difficult to assess whether each of these 500 charities was using the platform daily.
She said she is only seeing “a handful” of signups to the platform, which was previously owned by Twitter but is now independent, each week, noting that “it has slowed down and been at this level for a couple of months.”
There are also around 60 national charities which have created “placeholder accounts” on Bluesky, whereby the account has not been officially launched and has no posts.
Meanwhile, another 50 national charities have “no footprint on Bluesky at all”, Sugden wrote. She went on to summarise that of these 110 organisations, 76% are still using X, while 24% have quit X but not moved to Bluesky.
‘Mirror publishing’ remains common
“Mirror publishing”, which Sugden described as “posting the same thing at the same time on both platforms”, appears to be a popular choice, with most of the charities she observed retaining X as their primary channel.
She wrote that for the large number of charities that have remained on X, engagement with their posts is increasingly low, citing examples of the NSPCC’s and Cats Protection’s tweets steadily getting lower numbers of likes.
In contrast, engagement with posts that are dually published on Bluesky appears higher, with Sugden writing: “In a previous post, I compared results for Full Fact, RNIB and Hope Not Hate, all of which have grown sizeable followings on Bluesky. In all cases, engagement seems to be better for them on Bluesky.”
She noted that accounts typically need at least 2,000 followers for this effect to be seen.
Rise of ‘quiet quitting’ on X
Sugden also wrote about a growing number of charities “quiet quitting” X in favour of other platforms, with the term denoting an organisation ceasing to post on X without informing its followers.
She cited the National Trust, Action for Children and Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity as “high-profile” organisations that have quietly quit X.
“Hardly any charities have deleted their accounts leaving no footprint, and the only examples I could find are Woodland Trust and Pregnant Then Screwed.”
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