Is Twitter engagement taking a nosedive?

For the last 6-12 months, I've been putting more effort into Twitter.

According to Social Blade, I had 6,582 followers in July 2021. And as I'm writing this, I'm at about 15,400.

That's good growth, but it's not amazing growth. And throughout the last 6 months, I've frequently said, "Growth on Twitter is so accessible right now. But I don't know how long that window will stay open."

Well, I think that window may be closing.

Those 55 replies you see were a lot of people telling me they've noticed the same trend. And from folks who I look up to as being really in-tune with Twitter – folks like Alex.

If you look at bigger accounts – folks who built a name for themselves on Twitter – it seems like the average engagement on Tweets or Threads is way down.

When I started seeing this, my first reaction was frustration and regret.

Why didn't I put in MORE of an effort while that window was still open?? I should've known to make hay while the sun is shining.

But over the last week, I've changed my attitude. First of all, a lot of other responses on my thread were people saying they were getting more engagement than ever before! Not from your typical Twitter content machines, but from interesting humans saying interesting things for the sake of sharing more than for the sake of growth.

But what's REALLY exciting to me is that I noticed the change. I noticed that things were different. And when there are moments of change – inflection points – that presents an opportunity.

Inflection points are the starting points of new winning strategies or new demands from the market.

This is a time to try new approaches. To change the way we're showing up on Twitter. To stand out from the, "Most people suck at [thing]. But you don't have to. A Thread 🧵👇"

And even though I'm using Twitter as an example here, this is a lesson for ALL platforms. Certain strategies work for a period of time, and then they fade. They are replaced by new strategies that are novel and play nicely with the algorithm.

But who identifies those strategies?

Creators do! People like you and me who decide to experiment and try something different than the current best practices.

Here's the latest LinkedIn content experiment that's trending – screenshots of Twitter Threads uploaded as pages in a document:

You can innovate. You can try new things. And inflection points or points of boring sameness are a great time to do it.