In Case You Haven’t Heard
Elon Musk publicly disclosed earlier this month his aspirations to purchase Twitter. Ever since, it has been a bit of a wild ride. Immediately, it seemed as if the world was captivated by the thought of one of the world’s richest individuals, who is also notorious for being outspoken, owning a social media platform.
Well, that didn’t take long. Fast forward a few weeks to today. Elon Musk has reportedly purchased the social media platform for $44 billion and will be taking the company private.
What Does This Mean For The Platform?
Naturally, when a figure as polarizing as Musk purchases a company of this magnitude the mind begins to wonder. This is particularly interesting because this is by far the most high-profile public figure to ever purchase a social media platform. One would only assume that even if the richest man in the world spent this much money on a social platform, he sees a vast opportunity to improve the platform’s business model and make it even more profitable.
Free Speech
For starters, Musk has been vocal in ensuring that the platform continues to value “free speech”. While this is a controversial topic, a step in this direction will be a step in the opposite direction of other social platforms such as Facebook that have been increasing the “policing” of their content over the past few years.
Edit Button
Secondly, one of the large changes Musk would like to see is an “edit” button. This is a no-brainer in my opinion and has been a long time coming.
Remove The Bots
Twitter recently reported about 5% of its users are bots, but noted “not all bots are bad” and that “good bots” are being labeled. Well, apparently Musk doesn’t agree and would like to use authentication of all verified user accounts.
Open-Sourced Algorithm
This is exactly what it sounds like. Musk would like to offer users more direct control over how their feed looks.
The Most Controversial Change To Us In The Ad World
It’s no secret Tesla doesn’t believe in advertising. This is the big question many are asking, how will a company that relies on 90% of their revenue to come from advertising treat ads moving forward? The early word is Musk wants to eliminate, or at least reduce them.
I frankly don’t believe this is possible. I think if all the money Musk had invested was his, he would have more direct control over this. But being it is not, he will have stakeholders to report to and will have to come to a compromise here. The subscription based Twitter Blue isn’t exactly taking off and I don’t foresee the company somehow replacing 90% of their revenue with subscriptions.
So What Does This Means For Businesses In South Texas?
- I think what changes happen in ads will likely reduce the quantity of ads across the platform which will in turn bring better visibility to advertisers who do choose to advertise on the platform.
- I don’t know what you have heard but I feel individuals in this region ages 30 to 55 have been practically begging for an alternative social media platform. I have had many people repeatedly express to me their lack of trust in certain social media platforms (take a wild guess) but yet it is the exact platform they use most often. While TikTok is a definite up and comer for both organic content and paid ads, there does still seem to be less trust in the content coming from TikTok compared to say LinkedIn or Facebook. I believe Twitter can help fill this void. And having someone such as Musk who is so outspoken and a champion of free speech will encourage people to interact with Twitter who may have never otherwise. Particularly supporters of the first amendment or users seeking news updates on their feed.
- I would suspect the changes listed above will ultimately drive more users to the social media platform over the coming years. In addition to this, a reduction in the number of ads, an increase of the quality of ads, and the “war on bots”, will ultimately deliver a better return-on-investment for advertisers over time across Twitter. But also for organic social media. While in the Crossroads area of South Texas, Twitter hasn’t been a major organic social media player in previous years, this may be changing with the latest industry shifts.
The Bottom Line
We all have felt the shift over the past year. Facebook users have been decreasing as of recently and the cost per conversion has been increasingly rising for advertisers. TikTok and Snapchat have become common household names among social media platforms. YouTube continues to be the second most trafficked website after Google. Social media users are hungry for another option.
It’s time for businesses to buckle down across South Texas and really begin assessing their social media strategy. For organic content, Twitter must be a relevant option moving forward. For paid ads, it’s now time to venture outside of the traditional social media sphere in this region of just Facebook and Instagram.
Musk’s takeover signals to social media users change is on the horizon. There is hope because Musk has a track record for making companies succeed. Let’s hope he gets this one right. For social media users. For marketers. For society.
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