Bye Bye Bye
Is it finally time to leave that social media platform behind?
Calendar Inspo: It already feels like it’s been a long year. But this Pinterest 2025 Marketing Moments Guide may help spark some fun content ideas to help carry you at least through winter. 🥶
In today’s newsletter:
👋 Bye Bye Bye: Is it finally time to leave that social media platform behind?
🙄 Oh Brother: Zuck considers going back to “OG Facebook”
🇨🇦 Oh, Canada: Patriotism fills the social media feeds
Bye Bye Bye
A fellow social media marketer recently asked me about the best way to leave Twitter/X. And to be honest, she’s not the only one. On a daily basis, I see a post on Threads or Bluesky from someone considering leaving Twitter. And sometimes there’s a big bump in deletions, such as when Elon Musk changed the platform’s policy on blocking to allow views on public posts.
But it’s not the only platform that people and brands are fleeing. When Mark Zuckerburg recently announced he was getting rid of third-party fact checking, lifting speech restrictions, removing DEI policies, and mulling about how much he misses “masculine energy” in the corporate world, many others have also said they are considering leaving Meta and its family of apps behind.
If you — or the brand you manage social media for — is planning to get rid of any platforms, here’s what you need to know…
1/5 General Tips
Grab an archive of your posts: Before you decide to deactivate/delete your accounts, download an archive of your posts so that you can have a record of your content. You may never look at it again, but at least if you ever need to for legal or other reasons, you have that zip file.
Maintain 2FA if you stay: If you plan to hold on to an account, but not post there (for example, holding onto your handle on Twitter), you’ll still want to protect that account from potentially getting hacked. Maintaining two-factor authentication for login is a good way to do that.
Some accounts are linked: You can’t have a Threads account without Instagram. So, if you delete Instagram, you’ll also delete Threads. Also, if you delete Facebook but keep Instagram, you’ll lose access to the Meta Studio that allows you to access things like analytics and the ability to schedule content.
2/5 Deactivating vs. Deleting
Different platforms offer different options.
On Twitter, you can’t just “delete” an account. The only option is to “deactivate” an account. After 30 days, and as long as you don’t log back in, the account is permanently deleted. You can restore your X account for up to 30 days after deactivation by logging back in.
For Instagram and Facebook, both options are available to you — deactivation and deletion. Deactivating is temporary and it hides your account on Instagram until you reactive it by logging back in. Deletion is permanent, and according to Instagram, it could take up to 90 days for that process to be complete.
On LinkedIn, if you want to close a personal account, you can just close it. For LinkedIn Pages, you can only deactivate the Page. And according to LinkedIn, “it isn’t possible to completely delete a Page.” But deactivating it essentially hides it from being seen or showing up in Search.
3/5 Should we announce that we’re leaving?
This is a tricky one.
There are many Twitter accounts that have just quietly slipped away, such as NPR. And given the litigious environment on Twitter (Elon is currently suing advertisers over what the company calls a “systematic illegal boycott”), quietly leaving is probably the best option — especially if you want to hold onto that handle for a bit.
If you’re thinking of posting about your other social media platforms, Twitter doesn’t typically like that. So unless you plan to delete the account completely, again, I’d suggest just leaving quietly.
And if you are planning to stop using Twitter, but want to hold onto your handle, Twitter does have an inactive account policy. Typically they want you to log in at least once every 30 days (which is probably a good idea anyway).
REMEMBER WHEN… Lush left social media completely? This is one way to go out.
4/5 Where should we go?
There are many options if you want to focus on text-based posts.
Bluesky and Threads are both direct Twitter competitors. Threads has a much bigger audience (320 monthly active users) compared to Bluesky (30 million users). Threads also pulls a lot of your followers over from Instagram, so you have a ready-made community to start. But it feels like certain communities are more active on Bluesky (for example: journalists, writers, academics). Note: Meta recently announced it will be pushing out political content on Threads and Instagram from accounts you don’t follow.
LinkedIn is also a great option. It offers the option to post photos and videos, but I definitely find the majority of posts are text-based. It also has a good community feel, and very low toxicity.
5/5 How do you know when it’s time to go?
There was a post on LinkedIn this week by a social media consultant who was urging others to stop supporting Twitter for their clients. One of the main reasons was the fact that functionality on the platform isn’t what it used to be. And that’s true; for example, analytics.twitter.com was a go-to analytics resource for me for years. And now, you have to pay for it.
Or you may want to move on because you don’t agree with the policies of the platform anymore. OR the people running the platforms. OR, perhaps your audience has already fled. For example, many academics felt they were pushed off Twitter under Elon Musk. Read the study.
There’s never one reason, and deleting any account should be a thoughtful process, and be part of your overall social media strategy.
Resources
🍤 SOCIAL SNACKS 🍤
Zuck wants to get back to “OG Facebook”
There were several reports this week, including this one from The Verge, that quoted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg as saying he’s interested in making Facebook feel like it did “back in the day.” He made the comments during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. There aren’t many details, other than he plans to focus on this for the next 12 months, and is “excited this year to get back to some OG Facebook.” Hmm, like pokes and status updates? Or OG with masculine energy in the mix? In the words of Liz Lemon, “Oh brother.” 🙄
Dimensions for Carousels, Reels and Stories
If you’re confused about how to size your posts for Instagram in a post-square grid world, Instagram posted this guide. It’s helpful for them to point out the “safe areas” for Reels and Stories. But the sizing for Carousels just seems unnecessarily complicated with two different sizes for the image and the grid. Note: The comments might be one of the most interesting things about this post. 👀
🇨🇦 OH, CANADA
Patriotism fills the social media feeds
ICYMI: U.S. President Donald Trump announced punishing tariffs on its ally and closest trading partner this weekend. In response, TikTokers added Canadian flags to their handles. Others shared videos of grocery shopping hauls of Canadian-made goods and lists of Canadian products and retailers. And some announced plans to cancel American vacation plans and delete apps like Amazon Prime.
To add to the patriotism, I thought I would highlight Canadian content creator Alicia McCarvell, who went a step further and asked everyone on Instagram to tag their favourite Canadian businesses. Feel free to add yours! 🍁
