As a social media connoisseur, you are probably aware that I love utilizing Twitter in conjunction with other social media platforms for business purposes. You also know that Twitter has been an extremely popular media outlet for celebrity slip-ups, professional athlete trash talk, and maybe the occasional modicum of actual news here and there. 60 year old sportscasters who probably don't know how to use a cell phone have Twitter accounts (although many managed by their PR or Social Media Assistants). Yes Twitter is extremely popular, has been for several years now, and still has that "cool" factor like Facebook and YouTube. But why is it valued at around 25 BILLION dollars when it barely makes any money?
Twitter has always been criticized for not making more than pennies off of their popular platform. They only have a few sources of revenue by charging some users for their "Verified" checkmark, trending a specified hashtag, getting "first page" search results, and listing accounts as "Who To Follow" on the sidebar. That will get some revenue but not 25 billion dollars, maybe not even 25 million dollars. So what's to be done to bridge this gap? Well I can assure you there are going to be paid premium account options and at least several ads in the sidebar. There will be more random tweets in your Twitter stream from people you have never followed (I already have seen many from bands that I don't know exist and certainly don't follow). I've already received about 5 emails in the past month from Twitter pitching "Twitter for Business" paid options. It's going to get a little spammy, but that is what shareholders will demand to ensure their company's bubble doesn't burst.
I use Twitter a great deal for business purposes, as do millions of others (including nearly every large corporation in the world), but I personally don't see it as the absolute best source for news, entertainment, or even interaction at times. If I did not have online businesses, I would either:
1) Not have a Twitter account at all OR
2) Have 1 Twitter account I checked only weekly OR
3) Have 1 Twitter account I checked daily for no more than 5 minutes a day.
But time will tell whether this company ends up being the real deal with lasting power, or if it's just another embarrassing business fad / bubble we will look at shamefully 5 or 10 years down the road. I personally hope it stays around, but I'm just a bit skeptical unless they radically change their business model.
I hope you enjoyed this article going back to Twitter's Initial Public Offering and the effect it has on the social media industry overall.
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