A little over a decade ago, a widely shared Nielsen survey found that UK Twitter users mostly followed brands because they liked them, wanted special offers, or wanted brand news. That data is long out of date, and so is the platform it described. Twitter became X in July 2023, and the reasons people actually engage with brands there have shifted in ways that matter for anyone running a paid social or organic content strategy today.
Here is what current 2026 research actually shows, and what it means for how you should be showing up on the platform.
Entertainment, Not Offers, Now Drives Brand Interaction
The single biggest shift from a decade ago: entertainment has become the top reason people interact with brand content on X, according to recent social media content strategy research, followed by customer care. Special offers and promotions, which topped the old 2013 data, have slipped well down the list of motivations.
This is a meaningful strategic shift. A brand posting only promotional content, discount codes, product announcements, sale reminders, is optimizing for a motivation that is no longer the primary driver of engagement on this platform. Content that entertains, has a distinct voice, or adds to the cultural conversation is now doing more of the heavy lifting.
What this means for your brand: if your X content calendar is built primarily around offers and announcements, that is likely underperforming relative to what the platform’s current audience actually responds to. A mix that leans more heavily into personality, humor, or commentary tends to outperform a purely promotional feed.
Following Brands Is Still Common, But Estimates Vary Widely
Depending on the research source, the share of X users who follow at least one brand ranges from roughly one in three up to nearly four in five, a wide spread that reflects differences in survey methodology and how “following a brand” is defined. What is consistent across sources is that a majority of active users engage with brand content on the platform at least occasionally, and a meaningful share do so weekly.
What this means for your brand: rather than fixating on a single follower-count benchmark, focus on whether your content is actually prompting replies, retweets, and quote-posts, since those signals matter more to the algorithm and to real audience reach than raw follower totals. For more on why engagement rate is the more reliable metric to track, our guide on engagement rate versus follower count applies directly here too.
Customer Service Has Become a Core Reason People Follow Brands
Unlike 2013, when brand-following was largely a one-way relationship built on receiving updates, X in 2026 is heavily used for real-time customer service. Businesses that respond to questions and complaints publicly on the platform report measurably higher customer satisfaction than those relying on email support alone, and because those exchanges are public, they build trust with everyone watching, not just the person being helped.
What this means for your brand: if your X account posts content but never responds to mentions, replies, or DMs, you are missing one of the platform’s biggest current use cases. A monitored, responsive account does double duty as both a marketing channel and a support channel.
Video Content Now Outperforms Text and Static Posts
Short-form video has overtaken text-based posts as the content format users are most likely to engage with on X, a genuine shift from the platform’s text-first reputation. Video posts on X have been shown to generate significantly more interactions than photo or link posts, and video consumption on the platform continues to grow year over year.
What this means for your brand: if your X presence is still built primarily around text posts and the occasional static image, video is the highest-leverage format to add. It does not need to be highly produced. Quick, authentic clips tend to outperform polished promotional video on this platform specifically.
X Is Less Saturated for Influencer Marketing Than Other Platforms
While Instagram and TikTok influencer marketing are extremely competitive, only a small fraction of marketers currently run influencer campaigns on X compared to those other platforms. For brands willing to be early movers, this represents a genuine gap, lower competition for influencer partnerships and, in many cases, lower costs to work with creators who do have an engaged following there.
If influencer partnerships are part of your broader strategy, our guide to working with mega-influencers covers how to evaluate and structure those partnerships regardless of platform.
Advertising on X Remains Comparatively Affordable
Cost per click and cost per engagement on X have generally remained lower than on Instagram or LinkedIn, even as some advertisers have pulled back from the platform since 2023 over brand safety concerns. For businesses less sensitive to that specific concern, this pullback has created a less crowded, lower-cost advertising environment. X also supports follower lookalike targeting, letting advertisers reach audiences similar to a competitor’s or influencer’s existing followers.
If you are considering paid X advertising as part of a broader strategy, our guide to lookalike audience targeting explains how to set that up correctly across platforms, including X specifically.
Turning X Followers Into Actual Customers
Building a following on X is only useful if it eventually contributes to revenue. Roughly a third of active X users say they look for product reviews or recommendations on the platform, meaning there is real purchase-consideration activity happening there, not just passive scrolling.
For a full breakdown of how to move social media followers through an actual conversion funnel rather than just accumulating them, our guide on turning followers into paying customers covers the mechanics in more depth.
Where X Fits in a Broader Social Strategy
X should rarely be a brand’s only social platform, but current data suggests it still earns a place in the mix for businesses that can commit to an active, responsive presence, especially those with news-relevant content, a strong customer service function, or an audience skewing younger. For a full comparison of how X stacks up against other platforms for brand-building, our guide to the top social media platforms for brands is a useful next read.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is X still worth using for brand marketing in 2026?
For many businesses, yes, particularly those that benefit from real-time customer engagement, news-relevant content, or a younger audience. It works best as part of a broader platform mix rather than a standalone strategy.
What content performs best for brands on X right now?
Entertaining, personality-driven content and short-form video currently outperform purely promotional posts and static images, a shift from the offers-and-promotions content that historically performed well on the platform.
Do people still follow brands on X for special offers?
Some do, but current research shows entertainment and customer service have overtaken offers and promotions as the leading reasons people engage with brand content on the platform.
Is X advertising still cost-effective?
Generally yes. Cost per click and cost per engagement on X have remained comparatively low relative to platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn, and reduced competition from advertisers who pulled back since 2023 has kept costs down further in many categories.
Source: www.twitter.com
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