Sigh. What is Elon doing. I like to share a little personal life here before I jump into social strategy, but I’m so annoyed about this X / Twitter thing I just wanna get to it.

—Jack Appleby

Twitter has rebranded to X: an FAQ for Brands

Alright, so Elon decided to completely rebrand Twitter. Like. The whole thing. The name. The colors. The nomenclature. Everything. And he decided to do it on a Sunday afternoon, with no notice, no official communications, and hysterically/horrifyingly, without any of it figured out—he’s already changed the logo twice in three days.

Twitter is now X.

I know you’ve got a lot of questions, so I’m building this X FAQ for brands. Let’s get right to it.

What is X?

X is Twitter. Twitter is X. It’s a full rebrand of the app / website / company.

I’d love to link you to an official website with details, but it doesn’t exist. Elon just started tweeting it was happening, then it happened. When a proper about page launches, I’ll drop a link.

Does Twitter still work the same now that it’s X?

Yes, X works the same as Twitter. The core Twitter product has not changed. It’s Twitter with a black coat of paint.

Confusingly, you still log-in through Twitter.com and the Twitter app—those names haven’t changed yet. They likely will at some point, as X.com does already redirect Twitter, but for now, it’s just aesthetics.

Should Twitter rebranding to X change our brand’s social strategy?

Nope! Because the core Twitter product hasn’t changed, your brand’s organic and paid social strategy for X can stay exactly as it is. Keep on tweeting.

Should our brand consider leaving Twitter now that it’s X?

Listen, I know “let’s move to Canada” jokes are low-hanging fruit when absurdity like this goes down, but no, there isn’t a reason to bail on X, especially if your brand has built an audience there. If your followers are there, and your engagement’s the same, you should stay!

Now, if a new brand asked me if they should join X / Twitter for the first time, my answer's different. I’d treat it like when a new social network pops up—I’d grab the brand name, then focus on the other social networks like Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn—let things shake out a bit on X / Twitter before dedicating budget and manpower.

Is the Twitter brand dead? Did Elon kill the bird?

Supposedly, yes—RIP Twitter The Brand. Elon’s killing an iconic 17-year-old brand—the name, the bird, the colors, everything—and he seems quite proud of it.

I’m not ready to declare time of death just yet, though—this is Elon we’re talking about. He might resuscitate the bird a week from now for all we know.

We have Twitter’s bird logo on our website / product. Do we need to change that?

Sadly, yes, eventually. Don’t rush, though—as mentioned earlier, Elon has changed the X logo twice in 72 hours. He didn’t even have a logo when he announced the rebrand. I don’t want you abandoning your to-do list to update branding that could change 19 more times.

My suggestion: wait until X publishes a proper brand toolkit before you start changing anything, especially since the old Twitter Brand Toolkit is still live. X will likely be known colloquially as Twitter for quite a while.

Does the X rebrand signal a pivot for Twitter?

For now, X is just Twitter, but Elon + X CEO Linda Yaccarino have started tossing all sorts of jargon and buzzwords into the ether about their aspirations for the social network.

Yeah, I don’t know what any of that means. We’ll just have to sit back and see if that science-fiction comes to life.

Does Twitter becoming X mean our brand should focus on Threads?

Mmm, not in so many words. Do I think your brand should be on Threads? Yes—by repurposing your Twitter and Instagram content. But I don’t think the X rebrand is a reason for you to reallocate resources away from X towards Threads—stick with whatever Twitter and Threads strategies you currently have in place.

Is this all absolutely insane & totally irresponsible of Elon?

Yes, yes it is. I tried to keep my frustrations out of this piece, but if you want my takes (and jokes) on how Elon basically lit a $44 billion company on fire, head over to my Twitter… or my X, I guess.