It’s been plastered all over the news, and you hardly have to be a tech junkie to have seen it: last month, Elon Musk entered a deal to purchase the social media platform Twitter for $44 billion dollars. Naturally, this means that the people and businesses who use the highly impactful platform are wondering what might change in the wake of the company’s privatization by the world’s richest man. While none of us have a crystal ball into the future, Musk’s statements of intent and past actions can give us some clues into how the platform will evolve under his leadership in the future.
When is a deal really a deal?
However, anybody who follows Musk’s career and his personal life know that the tech giant’s attention can sometimes seem fleeting and that his interests can seemingly change at the drop of a hat. At this stage, Musk’s purchase offer has been accepted by Twitter, and it seems as though the purchase will be completed as intended, but with Elon Musk, it’s always best to prepare for constant change and to expect the unexpected. Musk has already tip-toed the line on some clauses in the purchase contract, and while these actions are unlikely to torpedo a deal unless they aggressively ramp up, smart business operators will know not to make any large-scale changes in how they use the platform until we know for sure that the deal has been 100% completed.
New Twitter features may come sooner (or later) than expected… and possibly costs, too
As a man who’s built his fame on the backs of forward-thinking tech companies, don’t expect a Musk takeover of Twitter to come without promises of exciting new features. While many are surely yet to be unveiled, the most talked-about (and most likely) new feature is an edit button–something many users have been requesting since the platform’s inception. With the company rolling out a test of an edit button last month along with Musk famously showing an interest in the feature, this major change to Twitter’s functionality is sitting firmly in the “nearly there” category.
New features aren’t the only functionality touted by Musk–he’s also floated the idea of monetizing the platform, particularly for larger organizations that use it, such as businesses and government offices. Of course, Musk’s past ventures are known for having long delays in product and feature launches, so it may be best to wait for these features to officially roll out before writing them into your marketing plan.
Will we finally discover how the Twitter algorithm works?
One of the most potentially exciting of Musk’s Twitter-related announcements is his proclamation that he intends to make Twitter’s algorithm open-source. This would make the code visible to all, meaning anybody who can decipher it can learn exactly how it works. Any marketer who relies heavily on social media platforms can attest to the frustration that comes with trying to work within an opaque algorithm, so the idea that it could be “cracked open” for all to see could have you salivating.
However, some experts have warned that having open-source algorithmic code may not make for the perfect transparency we hope for. Wired notes that because Twitter uses machine learning to control so many feed decisions, simply having the code for the algorithm won’t necessarily teach us all the information we need to understand how the platform works.
What Musk’s “Town Square” approach means for Twitter content moderation
Much has been written about how Musk hopes that his ownership of Twitter will provide more opportunities for “preserving free speech” and how he sees Twitter as the “town square” of the internet, open for anybody to share their views and their words. For some, this is an exciting development as they feel they can express themselves with less fear of being banned or for what they perceive as opaque speech standards. Others are more concerned, feeling that Twitter already does a relatively minimal job at restricting harassment and hate speech and that fewer moderation standards could make the platform a worse place to spend time. Regardless of which side of the debate you fall, users should prepare for a platform with less official moderation and a greater emphasis on self-curating your feed and followers.
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter is one of the biggest tech company sales in history, and should not be taken lightly. For better or worse, the whims of one man will likely impact how you run and market your business on one of the world’s most influential social media platforms, so following the see-saw of news is extremely important. But it’s also extremely challenging, especially when you have so much more to do to run your business, and that’s where Skol Marketing’s team is here to help. For help with all things social media, including adapting to unexpected platform changes, don’t hesitate to contact the social media experts at Skol Marketing.
