A Rebrand Gone Wrong: Saying Goodbye to My eX

Over the weekend, Elon Musk announced a major change for Twitter. We all hoped it was a joke, that he wouldn’t actually change the name of such a well-established brand. But as we’ve all come to see, he was quite serious.

With the support of CEO Linda Yaccarino, Musk has changed the name of Twitter to X.

While opinions about the rebrand ranged from confusion to annoyance, it seems like no X users, or those on its competitor Threads, is a fan of the rebrand, and for good reason. Not only was the change unnecessary, it also disregarded the years of brand work that had been done.

Some platform that I used to know

Since Twitter’s debut in 2006, a certain vocabulary associated with the brand (retweets, tweeps) along with its recognizable blue bird logo, were rapidly adopted by users. That type of brand advocacy usually takes years to build. Yet within 24 hours, it was all gone… for a single letter.

Over the past few months since the ownership transition in October, we’ve all seen the change in the site’s advertisers. Gone are the Diet Coke, Express and upcoming rom-com ads I was often served in my feed; instead, it’s filled with obscure brands that do not fit my personal buyer persona. Rather than being served a Barbie ad in my feed this weekend, I’ve been served ads for obscure credit cards and b-to-b cybersecurity companies.

Ditching the brand equity of Twitter overnight makes users and advertisers question the decision-making of the brand. Was there a well through-out plan? It’s hard (or easy) to tell by the lack of updates across the platform; even a Google search performed at 4:30 p.m. on Monday still showed Twitter as the main domain. (Not to mention that the Twitter sign on the platform’s headquarters couldn’t even be taken down on Monday due to a lack of a permit.)

Most rebrands begin with an introduction to the name, the story behind it and where the information came from to inform the change. What led to the new name, and why does it reflect who the company is today vs. years ago? And, perhaps most importantly, how does it represent the community that it serves?

When I think of Twitter, I think of a community of people who come together to chat about specific topics. It represents relationship-building and how online followers can become IRL friendships (seriously, I’ve met a number of friends over Twitter).

The bird and the language around Twitter all represented that community in some way. The name and branding of X feel incomplete—consider another controversial rebrand, dropping the HBO from streaming service HBO Max, that had a rollout, providing an explanation of the changes.

The straw that broke the brand’s back

The pattern of hastily made decisions since Musk’s takeover has shaken users’ trust and led advertisers to question whether this is a platform where they want to keep spending precious marketing dollars.

The number of U.S. users has dropped since the change in leadership. I personally see fewer of my peers and friends tweeting than previously. Even the number of advertising-related #TwitterChats has decreased.

In comparison, despite their own missteps, Facebook and Instagram feel more stable. With the recent addition of Threads, a direct rival to Twitter, to Mark Zuckerberg’s social empire, I would rather put money into those platforms or other advertising executions.

At the end of the day, this all feels like it’s more about the ego of the company’s owner than what the target audience truly wants. A short list of those requests: an edit button, less hate speech, more user protection, a chronological feed and suggested users based on our own usage of the platform. And as we all know, a brand is about more than the owner, CEO or any stakeholder within the company. It’s about how the public (your target audience) sees you.

For the first time in months, it feels as though Twitter (or X) is truly no longer going to be the platform that it was even two years ago: a place where you can find reputable news updates, get information on a product or service, build a community of like-minded individuals via Twitter chats or engage in a fun way with a brand (as I loved to do during the Super Bowl every year).

While I may still lurk on the platform (I am in marketing and advertising after all), I have to say goodbye to the eX at this point. See you soon, Threads.