PAPER making! FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL ® FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TEC Volume 12, Number 1, 2026
How to Use X for Business What differentiates X from other social platforms is its fast-paced, real-time nature. It is also very conversational because of the real-time dimension of a user’s timelines. This makes X an excellent real-time platform for businesses to quickly spread news, engage in customer service, or contribute to other relevant conversations on topics related to your business. But in recent years, X has experienced a decline in growth, coupled with numerous controversies (mainly related to its owner Elon Musk) and a mass movement of major brands pulling advertising from the platform. Plus the growth of social platforms such as Mastodon, Bluesky and Threads has not helped X’s situation. But what does this mean for brands that use and rely on the platform? In this article, we will examine the current state of X, explore how businesses can still leverage the platform, and assess whether it’s a worthwhile investment for marketers and businesses. Who Uses X? While everyone experiences X differently, here are a few key areas of interest that people look for on the platform. x News and politics : People want to find out the latest in local and global news, watch political events as they unfold, and interact with communities and social movements. x Sports : From the Olympics to the NFL Draft, you can get real-time updates, see what the star players have to say, and connect with fans around the world. x Utility : X provides a lot of utility. You can get commuter info and updates, receive disaster updates and support, and reach customer service agents without even having to call. x Customer service : A lot of people use X for customer service, so brands need to be paying attention in real time to service those customers. These are only a few categories of interest that make up the major conversations on X, but you can find a conversation for anything that interests you. With so many people and interests, brands can use these conversations to understand and share content with their target audience. X offers users the chance to post with 280-character messages, sharing what is happening around the world. Because of this live dimension, X is mostly used on mobile, where people can share and read in an instant. What is the current status of X? While the platform still boasts over 500 million monthly active users globally, recent trends suggest its influence and user trust are in steady decline. X's reach in Europe has been shrinking. According to the platform’s EU transparency report, X has lost approximately 11 million users across Europe since its previous filing in August 2024. User engagement is also declining. According to research from Buffer, the platform’s median engagement rate dropped from 3.47% in January 2024 to just 2.15% in January 2025, making it the second-lowest engagement rate among major platforms, just ahead of Instagram. Such trends suggest that even users who remain active are engaging less, either due to content fatigue, reduced trust, or the rise of alternative platforms. Much of this shift can be traced back to Elon Musk’s acquisition of X in late 2022. Since then, the company has undergone extensive restructuring. Roughly 80% of the workforce has been laid off, including the entire content moderation team, reported the BBC. This has raised significant concerns about the platform's ability to control hate speech, misinformation, and other harmful content.
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Article 10 – X for Business
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