5 Facts About the X Platform
Author: Lukasz Zajac: sociologist and PR expert at Zajac PR (Warsaw)
I’ve been on X for over 12 years. I consider myself a mature user. I’ll share my knowledge and experience to either encourage or discourage you from using X/Twitter. Why? Because for me, X/Twitter is an expert platform that requires effort and a well-thought-out approach to communication. Tweets can be creatively used to build interest, push your narrative, and gauge public sentiment. Both politicians and musicians, as well as journalists, use this effectively.
- X’s Audience
Who reads tweets? Often, it’s people shaping public opinion—experts or commentators. You’ll find journalists, specialists from every industry, politicians, athletes, entertainment figures, tech experts, and activists here. Of course, the readers are mainly regular people.
X is not a mass medium like YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram. It’s based on written culture, and because of the brevity of its messages, it gathers interesting personalities. While there is sometimes more entertainment and absurdity, it usually maintains an expert tone. This largely depends on the accounts you follow (the “follow” feature).
What does it mean that it’s not a „mass medium”?
Largely, it means that even if an account doesn’t have many followers, for example, only a few dozen, it can still generate significant interest. How? By encouraging opinion leaders to follow your account and providing engaging and important content. This way, you can become a micro-influencer—someone with a small reach (e.g., 1,000 followers) but significant impact (check the statistics feature).
„Journalists and key opinion leaders gather here. It’s surprising that so few companies run press offices on X. This is a natural environment for building media exposure”.
- X’s Creators
A creator is anyone who runs an account here, or even someone who has an account but doesn’t manage it personally—like public figures or social phenomena (e.g., Larry the Cat from Downing Street, with over 800,000 followers). I won’t write too much about creators; you’ll need to explore them yourself. Some people are here for private reasons, others professionally (to gather information, inform, or unfortunately, cause conflict).
„Had a drink? Don’t tweet! From time to time, you’ll see people posting in a state of emotional turmoil or under the influence of substances”.
- The Psychology of X
If we looked at social media as places where people meet, Facebook would be a gathering on the boulevard, Instagram on the beach, and X would be a conversation—often a very intelligent one—in a café or at a conference.
By observing users, you can gather a group of talented creators who, in 280 characters or through a thread (several tweets at once), can announce or summarize something interesting and wise.
Remember, you leave digital traces here. Every post, every reaction (when using the „like” feature), and every comment remains part of X’s history and the internet. Both can be deleted, but it requires time and attention.
X VIP? If you want to create your own community, you can decide who can follow you. This is known as a locked account. However, this limits the number of followers, and you can create a specialized audience.
- Golden Rules on X
- Had a drink? Don’t tweet! From time to time, you’ll see people posting in a state of emotional turmoil or under the influence of substances.
- Appreciate others’ work and use three universal words: thank you, sorry, please.
- Share private or sensitive messages through direct messaging. If this isn’t possible, think twice before posting something as a public comment.
- A Brand Account as a Press Office
Journalists and key opinion leaders gather here. It’s surprising that so few companies run press offices on X. This is a natural environment for building media exposure, building relationships with authors, and announcing important events.
It could be an official brand account, a press office, a spokesperson, or a CEO’s account. It’s worth sharing updates on organizational changes, plans, events, and crisis management here. This is the ideal place to quickly announce something and post updates.
During incidents, malfunctions, or media crises, we can keep selected audiences informed and provide explanations faster than through a traditional website.
Once you manage such an account, journalists often reach out with inquiries via X’s direct messaging.
On our side, we can also join ongoing discussions, praise or criticize various actions and decisions, demand engagement, and create public affairs under the principle that only those present have a voice.
Photo: PSPR. Author during debate.
