Trying to make sense of all that is going on at Twitter under Elon Musk, Abby Little of Chapman University’s The Panther Podcast reached out to me for an interview. Thanks Abby for the conversation in which we discuss Twitter use cases, its business model moving from a reliance on advertising toward subscriptions such as Twitter Blue or Fintech transaction fees, Elon Musk’s innovation process, impersonations and trolling, content moderation, and the future of the platform. Spoiler alert, Elon Musk will either turn out to be the best or the worst thing to ever happen to Twitter!
During the first few weeks under the ownership of Elon Musk, Twitter has been a constant in the news in spite of the midterm elections, war in Ukraine, and other world events. Mr Musk himself continues to communicate via the platform that he so clearly enjoys and in spite of his super-user status, he doesn’t show any intentions of holding back the punches. By contrast, he goes after senators as well as his own employees in a non-apologetic and confrontational manner.
News are also leaking out from frustrated employees who share any email that is sent by Mr Musk as well as audio recordings of what he says at all-hands meetings. Most recently, he has demanded employees commit to working “extremely hardcore” meaning “long hours at high intensity”
At least the continued Twitter journey is unlikely to be uneventful. Also, in spite of all the negative news surrounding the “honeymoon” phase of Musk’s Twitter reign, it would be premature to discount the possibility that he eventually could turn this platform into something quite powerful. Yet, it could also crash and burn and turn into a case study of could-have-beens, should-have-beens. A coin flip indeed.
Again, take a listen to the podcast interview in which I address:
- Twitter use cases
- Twitter’s advertising business and alternative business models
- Elon Musk’s innovation process
- Impersonations and trolling
- Twitter Content moderation
- The layoffs at Twitter
- The Twitter Blue subscription plan