Should Marketing Agencies Care About Musk (Maybe) Buying Twitter?

We could wrap this up pretty quickly by saying ‘possibly but probably not’ but where’s the fun in writing such a short, unhelpful blog? If you’re a TL;DR kind of person, though, this intro is your dream blog. You’re welcome!

You might be surprised by our casual take on this. After all, Twitter is a huge part of our origin story. It’s where Jo & Todd met (over an apostrophe ?) and the business was started. Many of our network met us there and we still enjoy dipping in every so often.

Should Marketing Agencies Care About Musk (Maybe) Buying Twitter?

Bring me up to speed on the history

We’ve gotta admit that TechCrunch has done a really good summary of who Elon is and his history, so we’re going to handover the reins to them for this bit. Fair warning – it’s not the most neutral of takes but, to be fair, it’s tricky to take a neutral stance on Elon Musk. He’s such a strong character!

Of all the hilarious moments that he’s had on Twitter, one of our faves is when Mama Grimes called him out.

This is Grimes’ mom. Thanksgiving is going to be fun. pic.twitter.com/7i3oLnzvrO

— Ryan Mac ? (@RMac18) May 17, 2020

Why aren’t we that bothered?

We’ve been doing a lot of reading, watching and waiting as the saga has played out over the last few weeks. Here’s what we’ve come up with.

1. The sale might not even happen – there’s a solid chance that this blog won’t see the light of day with the way things are going *types faster*. It’s on and off like a Love Island romance complete with plenty of sub-tweeting between Twitter CEO & Musk. Some people reckon that, because there’s a $1billion penalty for backing out of the deal, Musk wants out but that he’s trying to get Twitter to blink first.
2. His ambitions are likely impossible – he wants Twitter to be support free speech. The attempts to build free speech social media platforms have consistently flopped so far e.g., Parler was banned by Apple & Google and Trump’s platform (Gettr) hasn’t made it to launch.
3. Musk has a short attention span – he likes moving onto the next new and exciting project very quickly. Does he have the focus to stick with Twitter for long enough to recoup his $44 billion investment? The company has yet to make a profit after 16 years of trading. Its total revenue for 2021 was ‘only’ $5billion. Imagine the time needed to achieve Musk’s aims ($10 billion revenue from subscriptions alone), and increasing users to 931 million (currently 217 million users) by 2028.
4. Big changes don’t always go down well – remember the huge Snapchat redesign back in 2017 that they had to backtrack on a few months later? Yeah, that could happen on Twitter if Musk meddles too much straight away.

Things we’re a bit bothered about

1. User numbers might dwindle – we’ve already seen some people deleting their profiles because they don’t want to be part of the new Twitter. A local well-known journalist and TV presenter is one of these. If the audience decreases, it makes time spent on Twitter less valuable for marketing.
2. Corporations may have to pay a ‘slight cost’ to be on Twitter – now, we don’t know how corporations will be defined (maybe it’s just those giant firms), but if it applies to more business, then we might not bother for business. There’s no point paying to simply have a presence when there are so many other popular and free options.
3. Ad-free subscriptions – again, audience-related, but if people subscribe to use Twitter for added functionality and no ads, the potential reach of advertising drops drastically.

So, our advice? Don’t lose sleep over the news. Probably don’t waste too many awake minutes thinking about it either. Unless you love a bit of crazy drama played out online. In which case, get stuck in!

If you want to stay up-to-date on the crazy happenings in the online world more regularly, sign up to our Friday Roundup. It’s just what you need to get through the Friday morning blues.

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