With 586 million active monthly users as of 2025, X (formerly Twitter) offers a powerful way to connect with your customers. Whether you’re running a small business or managing a large enterprise, X’s engaged community offers exciting opportunities for growth and success in the digital world.
And don’t worry about the 280-character limit - when used creatively, X can be an amazing tool to boost your visibility and build vibrant communities around your brand. In this article, we will be breaking down why X still matters in 2026 and the reasons why you should consider including it in your social media marketing strategy.
Why you should market on X
X’s microblogging format makes it a fast-paced and dynamic platform; posts have the potential to reach millions within minutes. It’s the perfect place to promote your brand organically and easily catch trending topics as they happen, allowing news, thoughts, debates and ideas to spread fast around the globe. Nearly 60% of X users visit the platform specifically for news updates, establishing it as a major social media platform for staying informed about current events.
X posts are great for sparking conversations, and your audience will love seeing fresh updates from you throughout the day. This social media platform also works for creators who want to retain a more anonymous online presence, appealing to target audiences through tone and insight.
As a customer service tool, you can use X to address any customer concerns, questions and provide support in real-time, allowing you to build stronger customer relationships and boost your brand’s reputation. X is also known for having advanced built-in search features for social listening.
You can also purchase X Premium to get the verified blue tick badge for your account, along with additional features and protections. It’s worth noting, however, that the EU recently issued a €120m fine against X over its blue tick badges, stating the platform wasn’t properly verifying account ownership - potentially leaving users vulnerable to scams. In response, X cut off the European Commission’s ad account, preventing them from running campaigns on the platform.
Tip 1: Perfect your profile
Your brand identity must be clearly laid out in your X profile, so ensure it is fully optimized with the correct information. A well-crafted profile acts as your digital storefront, making a strong first impression on potential followers and customers.
When setting up your profile, keep the following elements in mind:
- Username: Choose a username that is relevant to your brand and persona.
- Bio: Write a clear, descriptive bio that explains who you are, what you do, and what value you provide. Add relevant hashtags if you like.
- Profile Picture: This is the first visual impression people will have of you or your brand, so ensure that it is professional, high quality and in line with your brand identity.
- Header Image: This should be used to further showcase your brand identity, or promote a relevant event or campaign.
- Relevant Links: Include links to your website, portfolio, blog or other social media platforms.
Tip 2: Create a powerful content plan
It’s recommended to post regularly on X to keep up with its fast pace - try sharing 1–2 times a day. Just keep in mind that posting too often might actually reduce your engagement. Additionally, if your message doesn’t fit in one post, you can create threads, which are a series of connected posts published sequentially. Though hashtags are still a staple part of posting on X, it is recommended to have no more than 2 hashtags per post.
You will also need to create a content calendar to maintain a consistent posting schedule - automate your posting either on X or with a third-party platform. Choose the time and day that has a significantly large platform user engagement to post on X - in general, posting between 7 am and 10 am is recommended for maximum engagement.
And here’s a fun tip: tools like Canva or Adobe Express make it super easy to create beautiful graphics that’ll really catch your audience’s eye and make your profile stand out.
Experiment with a variety of content formats, posting times, and tones to see what resonates with your audience. Carefully analyze your performance metrics to identify which strategies are generating the strongest engagement and results, then focus your efforts on creating more content on X that follows those successful patterns.
Additionally, Spaces can be utilized for live audio discussions where you can host Q&As, panels, or conversations with your followers. Connecting with people in real-time to share your expertise, offer advice, or have personal conversations helps build trust in you and your brand.
Tip 3: Engage with your audience
X is a fantastic platform for community building and customer service, so you’ll want to put together a strong engagement strategy to make the most of it. The wonderful thing is that genuine conversations through comments, replies, and shares can be incredibly powerful for growing your community. As a customer support channel, X is a smart choice financially - it’s less expensive than outsourcing to a call center. Plus, since X is a public space, customers can often find answers to their questions right on your profile page without even needing to reach out.
Being available to answer questions and concerns, giving helpful answers either publicly or privately (via DMs) will help you protect your brand reputation online. Always address negative feedback in comments — ignoring or deleting them will just make customers angry and will have an overall negative impact on your business image.
FAQ
What is the best time to post on X?
In general, it’s recommended to post weekday mornings for peak engagement. Use X Analytics to identify your audience’s optimal posting times.
How often should I post on X?
Aim to post 1–2 times per day to maintain visibility without overwhelming your audience. Consistency is more important than volume, so establish a posting schedule you can maintain long-term.
Should I use hashtags on X?
Yes, but use them strategically. Limit yourself to 1–2 relevant hashtags per post. Too many hashtags can make your content look spammy and actually decrease engagement. X has also banned the use of hashtags on promoted posts.
How do I handle negative comments or criticism?
Respond promptly and professionally to negative feedback. Acknowledge the concern, apologize if needed, and offer to resolve it via direct message. This demonstrates care for customers and can turn negative situations into positive experiences.
How can I use Grok AI to improve my X marketing?
Grok, X’s AI assistant, helps analyze trends, generate content ideas, create images, and understand your audience’s behavior.
What type of content performs best on X?
High-performing content includes trending topic commentary, questions, behind-the-scenes insights, visuals (images/videos), polls, and user-generated content. Posts that spark conversation and provide value get the most engagement.
Do I need X Premium for marketing?
X Premium isn’t required but offers longer posts, editing, fewer ads, and better visibility. Consider whether these benefits match your marketing goals and budget.
Tip 4: Make use of X Ads
No social media strategy is complete without a robust paid ads campaign. Maximise your ROI by making use of AI-powered targeted advertising - users on this platform are over 45% more likely to click on an ad on a social network, and 76% more likely to try new things.
You can design personalized ad campaigns targeting users by location, interests, keywords, or specific profiles to make the most of your budget. X gives you the flexibility to choose from text, image, and video ad formats — or mix and match all three. Additionally, X reported that using 3 or more ad formats can boost campaign awareness by 20% and increase purchase intent by 7%.
When creating ads, keep it short and sweet - X recommends 50–100 words, so feel free to keep your message simple and straightforward. Stay authentic, create a sense of urgency, use a clear call-to-action, and try to minimize distractions where you can, such as @mentions. X also prohibits the use of hashtags and emojis in ads.
Select one of the following campaign objectives, and start promoting:
- Awareness: Maximise your ad’s user reach to achieve brand and product awareness.
- Consideration: Involves boosting traffic and impressions, such as video views, pre-roll views, app installs, website traffic, and engagement.
- Conversion: Encourage people to take action, such as app re-engagement and website conversions.
Ad formats on X
The content formats you can use on X for advertising purposes are as follows:
- Promoted Ads: These are paid X posts (image, video, carousel or text). that boost visibility and engagement, and function like organic posts, save for the “Promoted” label.
- Vertical Video Ads: These full-screen, sound-on ads account for approximately 20% of daily user time and are considered the fastest-growing and most engaging format on X.
- Collection Ads: Featuring a primary hero image and smaller thumbnails, this format allows users to browse, tell stories and shop at the same time.
- Dynamic Product Ads: Serves product ads to targeted customers at the right time.
- X Amplify: This aligns ads with premium video content from relevant publishers through pre-roll and sponsorships.
- X Takeovers: Offers premium, mass-reach placements that drive results by taking over Timeline and Explore tabs.
- X Lives: Allows audiences to join your broadcasts for events such as product launches, conferences, fashion shows, etc.
Other dynamic advertising features available on X include App Cards, Website Cards, Branded Hashtags and Branded Notifications.
Tip 5: Monitor X analytics
Use X Analytics to gain unique audience insights to help you test ideas, learn what works, and make your marketing campaigns even better. Review your dashboard to identify top-performing posts, understand what’s working, and refine your strategy accordingly. Your video activity dashboard is perfect for diving deep into how your videos are performing.
You’ll also want to keep an eye on your ad performances through the campaign dashboard, and track conversions to understand your customers’ journeys better. You can even download all your analytics data as a CSV file to keep everything organized and on record.
The primary metrics to be measured include:
- Impressions: Number of times your posts are displayed
- Likes: Shows how much your content resonates with viewers
- Shares: Indicates content worth spreading to others’ networks
- Comments: Measures conversation and engagement quality
- Engagement rate: Percentage of viewers interacting with your content
- Follower growth: Tracks audience expansion over time
- Conversion rate: Tracks user actions after viewing or engaging with X ads
- Retention: Measures how long viewers watch your video content
- View rate: Percentage of impressions that resulted in video views
- Completion rate: Percentage of viewers who watched your video to the end
Additionally, you can have access to the Business Insights Dashboard, which gives you weekly recaps of your content performances and followers’ growth statistics. You’ll also get personalized tips and actionable resources to help you improve your strategy and grow your presence on the platform.
Tip 6: Optimize your strategy with AI
AI can really help take your content strategy on X to the next level. AI-powered advertising helps you get the best return on your investment by reaching the users who are most likely to engage with your ads.
The most notable X tool to take into account is Grok, a robust AI-powered assistant created by xAI that can help you understand your audience better and supercharge your marketing efforts. You can use Grok to get answers to your questions, create eye-catching images, spot emerging trends, and put together helpful documents - plus you can even create a custom AI chatbot to use as your personal marketing assistant.
Final Thoughts
If you intend to market to your audience in a way that is casual, fast-paced and witty, X is the right platform for you to leverage. Posting content that sparks conversation will help you build communities around your brand. Run an audit on your X account, note what needs to be improved and what changes you should implement in order to grow brand visibility.
Remember that building a successful X marketing strategy is a continuous process that requires patience, experimentation, and adaptation. Monitor your analytics regularly, stay updated on platform changes, and be willing to adjust your approach based on what resonates with your audience. By combining authentic engagement, strategic content planning, and data-driven optimization, X can become a powerful tool for growing your brand and connecting with your target audience in meaningful ways.
Ready to take your branding to the next level? Contact Black Pug Studio today for expert tips on brand success and digital strategy!
6 Tips for a Smart X Marketing Strategy in 2026 was originally published in Creative by Black Pug Studio on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
