Last week in our communications graduate class at Columbia, I asked the question, “would you pay the amount of money, be it $20 or 8 or 4, to keep the blue check.”
The answer I received from our 15 students from around the world, was surprising.
Almost every one said yes.
It wasn’t like any had massive followings or for that matter even a verified account, it was about making sure that whomever they were working with…athlete, celebrity, team, brand, cause…was able to maintain the status quo of their community, and that is what social should be about, maintaining community and conversations for users. This piece is actually well done and worth a read explaining the entire business process that got Twitter to this point.
The debate over Elon Musk’s takeover has been back and forth for days now. Some say they are out and would never pay any fee to be involved, including many journalists, per this Washington Post story.…others will line up to get “status,” many are outraged and perplexed over the firing, and potential rehiring of staff (including several colleagues we know personally). Others are worried about what an unrestricted open forum without monitoring could look like, and how much trouble could come from such a move.
My initial thoughts? Lets take a second and see where it goes. Unusual yes to pause as we are all screaming at each other on social channels, but here goes. Some things to consider.
First, Twitter has been openly looking for revenue opportunities that effect subscriber numbers, followers and engagement for months. While I don’t get caught up in numbers and retweets and likes on my account…I don’t use Twitter as a revenue source, much more as a bookmark and listening tool for best practices…I did notice a substantial drop in impressions in mid summer. What came with that? An offer from Twitter to “promote” tweets to drive up visibility. And as we have seen with platforms like Facebook in previous years, manipulating data to see where your content can come up is part of the secret revenue source. You pay and low and behold your numbers go up. Me, for now I’m good with where I am.
Second, the “verification” system from Twitter sometimes was more than quizzical. How some people received the check where others did not was pretty much of a guess. There were always urban legends of someone of influence calling “twitter” and suddenly an athlete or media member was “verified,” and it was rarely clear why the check came in (mine appeared literally in the middle of the night one night) when it did, but the checkmark system was always something of debate. So was it all this cut and dried system where you could ask questions as to why? No. It was all behind the blue wall somewhere, and frankly that was OK.
Third, for those on the business and content side, the checkmark does have value. The algorithm pushes you up in other peoples searches, you re able to get in front of more likeminded people, and you can also expand following for more one on one conversations in a faster period of time than without the checkmark (at least that’s the ay it used to be). Is it the be all and end all? No.
Fourth, for those leaving the platform, isn’t better for now to stay, voice our opinions and thoughts to your community, and see where it goes from here? I have often thought that those who suddenly cancel events, or subscriptions in protest do so many times way too quickly. The reality is, if you have the event, if you stay on the platform, if you give things a chance, you actually have MORE influence than leaving the conversation or the interaction with people. Rushing just to cancel because of the way things have gone in a week is pretty extreme. If you don’t like or engage with the content and the community that’s one thing, but just leaving for the sake of leaving (Mastodon is the new one we should rush to?) actually decreases your chance at success or impact than trying to adapt and push forward.
Fifth, the world knows the quirkiness and the mercurial personality of Elon Musk, but the man did buy the company with his own cash, and as Mark Cuban told The Washington Post, he can do whatever he wants with what he bought. You may not be happy with it, but it is his company now.
At the end of the day the real reason to leave or not leave Twitter for anyone should be about community and engagement. If you are an athlete, a celebrity, a team, a brand, whose audience is still large on Twitter…or any other platform…then you have to see if there is a way to make it work. If xx celebrity or athlete leaves Twitter, will all their followers suddenly jump? Doubtful. They may be less engaged, but doubtful millions will bolt if Shaq or Kim Kardashian leaves. They will follow elsewhere maybe, but they won’t all suddenly disconnect, their lives are too busy to make it a priority.
On the dollar side, people saying they won’t spend anything…well it comes down to the value of discretionary dollars. We spend lots on streaming services we rarely use, on gym memberships that collect dust, on audio services that may not have great value but do we run around cancelling them all? No. If Twitter Blue has value…if it helps enhance usage and following, if it opens new doors, then you have to determine if the juice is worth the squeeze for your budget. One intriguing question for example are teams…will a league like the NBA get a large licenses ce for all its verified accounts at a discount, and how would that work? Does it translate to athletes and coaches as well? All of that is to be determined.
Am I happy that some colleagues lost their jobs last week? No. Do I understand there is a cost of doing business and trying to find a way to turn a profit for something that was just purchased? Yes. Anyone around sports especially is well aware of what usually happens when a new coach comes in, a new owner takes over etc. etc. Those left behind may not be part of his/hers/theirs plans no matter how well they did their job. That’s the decision if the buyer. It’s not always fair, but its their choice, and for that matter, let’s try and HELP those we know who got let go figure out what’s next. Maybe Twitter is a good source of information finding that can help them in the process? Who knows, but railing at the full moon just because…that rarely gets anywhere in an attention starved world.
For right now let’s continue to listen to the conversation, see what the dollar value is, what the benefits are, and see what happens with twitter, or for that matter, any other social platforms as the year goes by. I’m old enough to remember wayyyy back when none of these platforms existed, and we did OK and found away.
To spend time debating to stay of go from any platform? Not something to be all atwitter about, at least not yet.
