Why Twitter’s New “Undo” Feature Doesn’t Make Marketing Any Less Meticulous
With recent news of Twitter’s intention to implement an “Undo Timer”, users who retroactively regret putting their thoughts out to the internet would have a limited window of time to retract their statements. This may be a blessing for your average user as to be frank, a lack of meaningful engagement on a grander scale limits the nature of retracting one’s tweet solely to personal doubt or to an extreme, a potential violation of the platform’s terms of service. For businesses trying to develop their brand persona on Twitter however, there is the additional aspect of public perception, placing a much higher emphasis on ensuring positive impressions and interactions. Despite the clear upside of being able to retract an overly bold or provocative statement, social media marketing begins long before hitting the “Send” button.
How Should The “Undo” Feature Assist in Marketing on Twitter?
To be honest, it shouldn’t.
As a business trying to market to consumers through social media, the process of even sending a single tweet becomes much more nuanced than just the simple idea of giving your thoughts to the public. One must not only consider the alignment of this content with the brand’s goals, values and identity, but the ramifications of the message you are trying to send to onlookers on the platform beforehand. What originally made social media marketing such a meticulous process was the element of being able to read and predict the overall public reaction to your posts beforehand. This ability is what allows successful social media managers to maintain constant engagement on platforms like Twitter, as they can utilize a correct read on public perception to direct their content in a manner that is consistently in line with the consumer’s preferences and interests.
For one, social media managers of large companies should be well aware of the potential ramifications of posting a statement on Twitter that warrants retraction in the first place. An underlying assumption of operating the Twitter account of a company is that there will always be eyes on you and your actions on any platform. Whether it be a potential competitor looking for a mistake in your marketing strategy or a dissatisfied customer wanting additional evidence to prove your perceived incompetence, there should always be someone paying attention to your Twitter account the moment something new is posted.
A general rule of social media for those with a considerable presence on the platform is that once something is posted, it will remain on the internet regardless of whether the tweet is deleted. The fear of one mistake remaining on the web as an eternal piece of news should already be the driving factor for experienced social media managers to give at least some degree of thought into their tweets. If anything, all an “Undo” button should be doing is cleaning up any careless lapses of judgement in the moment which realistically should not occur with an in-tune and competent user.
