Twitter To Be Monetised! Earn While You Tweet!
I’m not leaving — I’m curious about what happens next
I’m not leaving Twitter. I enjoy it there. Elon Musk recently announced that monetisation of tweets is in the pipeline. People who are cancelling their accounts in protest might regret it later, if they lose their following, then decide they’d like to earn money on the platform when the new functionality kicks in.
I’m curious about what happens next. With $4m in losses every day, I can see why Musk felt drastic action was needed to cut costs and generate revenues. Some sources suggest that the company was over-staffed, so perhaps this was inevitable.
Firing 50% of the staff by email, however, is grim — a poorly executed plan. I’d have asked for voluntary redundancies first, given people a chance to prepare themselves, and followed good practice. But then time is money and I’m not a billionaire.
Musk is now facing another lawsuit over the way in which he fired half the workforce. Including the accessibility department (ouch!)
I do sympathise with the need to turn around an ailing company. I’m just not a fan of the way he did it. As for what happens next… his way of operating is certainly fast moving and dynamic.
The verification thing seems like a gimmick. I mean, the blue check verification, you can buy for $8 — that’s just a bit of fun. There’s a secondary tag, which actually verifies whether a public figure is indeed the real person. I guess that one’s free.
He also announced last night: “Twitter will soon add ability to attach long-form text to tweets, ending absurdity of notepad screenshots”.
It’s all changing, and fast.
Will Musk’s ownership be to the detriment of the platform? I don’t think so. He’s a businessman. He knows how to sell stuff and how to make things work, despite ups and downs in financing. He was virtually on the brink of Bankruptcy while trying to make Tesla fly. He’s proven he can bring a business back from a bad place and turn it into a success.
I expect he’ll be tough on his employees. That’s already started with some employees working 84 hour weeks to meet project deadlines. That seems to go with the territory. I’m not saying I agree with it. Some staff will probably seek employment elsewhere, and I don’t blame them. I might too, in their shoes.
In Tesla, Musk seems to surround himself with people who understand and share his vision. I have a suspicion that Twitter may go the same way. How he hopes to be quite so ‘hands on’ managing both companies remains to be seen. He’s bringing in staff from Tesla, Boring Company, and Neuralink to do code reviews and help achieve Twitter’s early goals.
For Twitter, an imminent new feature to be released after longform tweets will be: “creator monetization for all forms of content”.
That sounds like we might be paid for Tweeting — like we’re paid on Medium. Now that is interesting! More details to be unveiled in two weeks, apparently.
I like Twitter. I don’t go there much because I’m on Medium. But I’m certainly not abandoning it. I watch all developments with fascination!
© Susie Kearley 2022. All Rights Reserved.
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