Among other changes, Twitter is deleting dormant accounts on its platform – but what impact could this have on your salon business? PB’s social media editor Chris Halpin explains all of the updates

At the end of November 2019, Twitter revealed plans to purge millions of accounts that were deemed to be “inactive”. This meant any user who had not logged in within six months would be at risk of deletion. The deletions were earmarked to start in mid-December, before Twitter paused its plan (allowing time for accounts of deceased people to be “memorialised”). But when the account culling starts, could it actually be a good thing for your business?

Explaining the policy

Twitter explained it was deleting accounts both for GDPR compliance reasons, and also to “improve credibility and eliminate the ‘undue sense of importance’ inflated follower counts can bring”. Twitter has faced a large problem with “bots” and fake accounts over the past few years, which has created an air of negativity when it comes to Twitter’s use as a business tool.

Previously, Twitter’s attempts to remove these accounts only scratched the surface. By setting this six-month deadline, Twitter will be able to cut down a much greater number of these fake accounts, along with generally dormant ones.

This will, of course, mean that follower counts will drop – regardless of whether you have artificially inflated that number. Many of these “bots” follow genuine accounts to appear real to Twitter’s algorithms.

So, how might this actually prove to be better for salons? For starters, while numbers may drop, this should be reflected across the board on all accounts – and you’ll know that the followers left are at least “active” according to Twitter

Taking advantage

This presents the perfect opportunity to get on Twitter, go after your audience and get some great engagement from them. Make sure you’re checking updated audience information through Twitter Analytics, then start working on content that’s specific for them.

There are other benefits from losing so many accounts. When you signed up for Twitter, you might have found the username you wanted was already taken. Through the deletions, that username may become available. Check to see if the account using it is active; if not, you should be able to claim it when the account is deleted.

One word of warning on this. Changing your username on Twitter might confuse clients who know your current brand. An option is to register a new account using that username – and then use it solely to point clients to your existing profile.

Finally, as another part of Twitter’s updates, the platform is now trialling a tweet-scheduling option. Previously, scheduling tweets on Twitter either required going through their Ads service, or using a third-party tool. From an ease-of-use perspective, this could help with planning content further in advance and cuts out these “middle man” services.

With all these changes in the work, 2020 could be the year we see a resurgence in Twitter usage. PB