50 Reasons You Should Ditch Tweeting for Texting

Subtext

Dec 16, 2019·3 min read

By Mark Stenberg

For a long time Twitter was the place to be for journalists. But that’s changing. Subtext is just one of many different channels or tools you can use to engage your audience outside of Twitter in meaningful and engaging ways.

The tl;dr: Subtext lets reporters send text messages to subscribers (one-to-many) like an email newsletter. Subscribers can respond (one-to-one) to the host, and our backend tools make it all manageable. It’s not a group-text though. The campaigns can be free for subscribers or part of a standalone subscription product, earning you revenue. They can also be put behind a paywall to retain existing subscribers. It all depends on what your goals are: engagement, revenue or retention.

So, here are 50 reasons why texting is better than Twitter for both reporters and the audience.

1. Your mom still hasn’t figured out Twitter
2. Even the best tweets are just unpaid labor
3. And most tweets aren’t good :/
4. Employers don’t read your texts
5. Friends do read your texts!
6. To paraphrase the USA Network, “Characters [are] welcome [when texting].”
7. When you’re texting, there are no reply guys, just replies :)
8. In real life, we’re all unverified
9. Literally every age, race, demographic texts — whatever your audience, they text
10. Twitter is depressing
11. No irrelevant texts from irrelevant companies
12. No more Harry Potter “updates” from J.K. Rowling
13. Twitter followers aren’t friends
14. Statistically speaking, almost nobody sees your tweets
15. Twitter might not be around forever
16. Jack Dorsey is too busy running Square or doing yoga
17. The best news comes through text
18. The worst news comes through Twitter
19. Texting made phone calls obsolete, and we should be grateful for that
20. Deranged world leaders don’t have your phone number
21. You can make real money by texting
22. Twitter is performative, texting is informative
23. You won’t have to argue with that rando that shows up to your convos
24. Twitter is performative, texting is informative
25. Texting has a 95%+ open rate
26. You won’t accidentally retweet Russian propaganda
27. Your audience will reply to your tweets telling you how much they LOVE your texts
28. When you ask your texting audience something, you’ll get 10x more responses than you would on Twitter
29. Texts make people feel special. Tweets make them feel overwhelmed
30. There’s no addiction to hitting refresh
31. When you’re texting, the value is on providing and receiving real information
32. Twitter loves selling your data
33. Good group texts are a home away from home
34. You’re always only one tweet away from a public roast
35. Twitter’s built on hot takes, not good takes
36. There are no ads in your text inbox
37. My boss said I had to come up with 50 of these
38. Twitter doesn’t have a focus, but your texting group does
39. You don’t waste hours of your life scrolling through text messages
40. There are no trolls when you’re texting
41. You’re tired of journalists tweeting to other journalists about journalism
42. Twitter is basic
43. Fiction spreads further than truth on Twitter
44. You’re paying for a phone plan, so texting helps get your money’s worth
45. Twitter’s draft folder is just a reminder of your bad ideas
46. Strangers on Twitter love sending you weird DMs
47. No more angry tweets at airlines
48. You can be real in text
49. Twitter’s not even sure that Twitter’s a good idea
50. You can JoinSubtext.com