Twitter is Purging Millions of Fake Accounts – That’s Great News for Marketers
Scrolling through your Twitter timeline has been leaving a lot of users feeling uneasy, especially as of late. The proliferation of bots using fake accounts to spew all sorts of offensive or fraudulent content across the platform has left consumers wondering if, perhaps, Twitter’s days as a useful social media outlet are numbered. For marketers, the Twitter conundrum was especially troublesome, as many considered the risks to their reputations of putting their content in a feed alongside these fake accounts. But as of this month, there’s good news for marketers on Twitter.
Twitter’s Monthly User Count Drops
Twitter has deleted the accounts of millions of fake profiles over recent months, resulting in a decline of the average number of monthly users from 336 million to 335 million. This represents a huge dedication on their part to improving users’ experience on the platform, as Twitter’s stock slid by a whopping 15% upon this news.
But for the long-term, deleting the fake accounts will remove the deluge of misinformation, offensive tweets, and enormous volume of low-value content that has bombarded users on the platform for years. Brands have had to work even harder to be relevant on the platform in order to stand out from the excessive content created and posted by these bots. Removing these accounts will make Twitter a more attractive place for marketers in the coming months, giving them more time in front of consumers, as well as lowering the likelihood of their posts appearing near some horrible, inaccurate post from a spam bot.
Long-Term Impact of Fewer Bots on Twitter
Fewer fake accounts will be a major step forward for users, brands, and for the company itself. Users will have less offensive material from bots, which will hopefully translate to more time on the platform, and potentially more overall users. Brands will benefit from this increase in time spent on the platform, with more opportunities to share meaningful content with users without having to compete with spam bots. Twitter hopes that brands will see more reason to advertise on the site, especially if user counts increase and time spent in-app goes up.
It’s a wonder why Twitter waited so long to purge these fake accounts. Surely, creating a more positive user experience without all the spam bots would have helped it compete for consumers in its fight against Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat – a war in which Twitter has been the decided loser. But, they didn’t. And the move now has cost them big with shareholders.
At any rate, this move should help the platform become more attractive to users in the years to come. July marks only the third month in the company’s history in turning a profit, so perhaps it’s best Twitter keeps thinking in terms of the long haul.
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Article written by:
Wes Sovis
Business Development Manager
