Our use of 'X'
November 15, 2024
What we are doing
Action for ME will be ceasing use of social media channel ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter). The current account will remain as a dormant account. This will free up resources to focus on other social media channels where our limited resources can have greater impact.
As many of you will already be aware, there have now been a number of charities and organisations who have decided to cease or scale back their use of X in recent months.
As a charity supporting people with disabilities, we want to reach as many people, and as diverse a group of people, we possibly can. But we also have a responsibility to review the platforms we use to ensure they align with our core principles and values and, have the greatest benefit for the people we support.
We have therefore decided that we will be ceasing activity on X from 1 January 2025, scaling back our use of the platform in the meantime.
This decision has not been made lightly. It follows months of conversations within the organisation, and with a few groups outside of the organisation, focusing on ensuring our time and capacity is used in areas that will enable us to best support people affected by ME, including increasing levels of engagement and expanding our reach on social media.
Why we are doing it
Aside from the ongoing ownership and policy conversations, our reach and engagement on X are low and growth on the platform has remained stagnant in recent years. This contrasts with other platforms, such as Instagram and LinkedIn, where we have seen signs of and potential for significant growth in followers and reach.
A large portion of our Marketing & Communication team’s time (two staff working the equivalent of 1.4 full-time hours) is taken up monitoring X and engaging with issues that arise on it. Often, these conversations arise through inaccurate, or second/third-hand information being shared and very quickly becoming a large issue. This further drains capacity from the team due to the need to manage our organisational response.
What we will do instead
We want to continue to ensure that the ME community and wider public have the opportunity to hear about our work and updates from within the field.
Alongside improving focus on our current social media channels, there are other channels that we want to utilise but don’t have the capacity to do so, preventing us from growing our reach and raising vital awareness and understanding of ME.
For example, have yet to establish ourselves on TikTok, which research by EMARKETER has shown to be used by 74% of Gen Zs to search for information, as opposed to using Google. As a result, we are missing the opportunity to engage with an entire demographic and ensure that they are receiving accurate information on the condition.
Additionally, we do not actively use Threads and whilst its monthly active users is still far below that of X, its usage has continued to increase since its launch in 2023.
Update: BlueSky will also be reviewed as a potential platform for use, given recent growth in users.
Furthermore, we will soon be launching a monthly update which will be shared as a one-page summary on what we have done that month and what we have coming up next month. This will be used to increase transparency of knowledge of our work and was announced at our AGM, at the end of October.
We will also be reinstating our ‘Keep Me Updated’ newsletter in February, for our supporting members (where we have email addresses), donors, and those who have consented to receive communications from us in this way.
Close
We would like to thank you for your understanding and look forward to continuing to share exciting updates about our work and from within the ME field, moving forwards.
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