The Washing Post X (previously known as Twitter) feed is a saturated with a plethora of posts about politics, sports, social media/technology, and the odd advertisement thrown in, just to name a small few. This hugely diverse range of posts offer minimal information in the posts, prompting viewer to click on the post to be directed to fuller articles that give more information, with a catch – users must pay for the access. They also occur in rapid fire succession, with multiple posts going up within a one hour period, all offering articles on wildly different topics from seemlingly pro-Trump propaganda and reporting to the apparent boom of the tourism/golf/beer industry thanks to “women”. One might be prompted to ask when perusing this account who the target audience is, and with such a huge onslaught of content offered by the hour on an incredibly diverse range of topics, the answer seems simple: everyone.

Perhaps this accounts for their 20 million follow count. Providing content that is of interest to the broadest range of demographics seems sure to end in some measure of success, and it certainly appears as though the Washington Post X page has a multitude of writing teams dedicated to writing content that appeals to certain demographics: Sport fanatics, pro-trump republicans, women, people influenced in the work of over-50 social media influencers, and those who want to know what the US is and isn’t doing in the Gaza/Israeli conflict overseas, just to name a few. If their goal is to generate clicks on articles, then they will certainly be achieving it with such huge numbers of posts vs. followers.

In contrast, the ALIANational X page has a very different approach. With 11.7 thousand followers, their target audience appears to be those interested specifically in the Australian Library and Information Association, with the content posted relating directly to libraries and the association. Their focus is rather on diseminating and providing access to resources, inviting viewers to seminars, chats and other professional learning that might interest them, alerting viewers to writing and publication opportunities, and offering a range of other services. Their content is not hidden behind a paywall, as is the case with the Washington Post X feed, and their intent appears to be to inform and provide to their audience, rather than entice for paid clicks.

If one were to measure the success of both pages based on number of followers, the Washington Post page would be the most successful. If one were to measure the success of both pages based on the number of views per post, the Washing Post page would be the most successful.

However, the ALIA page, with their lower interactions and follows, is considered more successful here. For strengths, their target audience is more specific, and the content posted more aligned with their target audience in mind. Their content matches their purpose, and is not hidden behind a pay wall. They could however find more opportunities to reach more users. Perhaps some paid boosting would increase their post views to match Washington Post levels, which would open more opportunities for more users to be effectively reached. Of course, they are operating in a very niche market, with only those interested in Australian library information being likely to access their page, which is a threat to page growth to consider.