Now that Elon Musk has been the new owner of Twitter for some time, will the Twitter social media network continue to change much? What will happen to the Twitter social media network under Elon? One thing can be sure, Twitter will surely get more interesting with Elon Musk on Twitter as the owner.
While some people were thrilled at the prospect of having Elon Musk at the helm of one of the world’s most popular social media platforms, others are concerned that his controversial behavior could do more harm than good.
So, the question is: will Elon Musk Twitter Chief Twit inspire and unite us as Twitter’s new chief executive? Will he be successful?
I have to admit I was excited by the news when Elon took over as Twitter has been dying according to some recent reports by Reuters. Internal documents showed that their most active users have left the social network.
After all, Inspire To Thrive has grown over the past decade-plus in part due to traffic from the Twitter social network. It’s been the number one source of referral traffic here for years but recently dropped to number two or three in referral traffic.
It by far surpasses traffic from other social media channels.
You can learn how to follow Elon Musk on Twitter and subscribe to his latest tweets below.
First, When Did Elon Musk Buy Twitter?
According to this tweet, it shows Elon entered the company headquarters in San Francisco, California after making the purchase of the social media platform. The sale was completed on October 27, 2022.
.Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
Musk On Twitter
Some people are saying that Musk’s tweets will become more business-oriented now that he’s in charge of Twitter. Others believe that Musk will continue to use Twitter as a platform to share his thoughts and musings with the world as he is a huge influencer.
He continues to do just that as of this week:
Comedy is legal on this platform! https://t.co/G1ZslWmxBK
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 2, 2023
What’s Next For the Social Network?
Rumors have been floating around that layoffs will occur at the social media networks headquarters in San Francisco. However, it was also reported that these layoffs were in place before the takeover of the social-networking company.
In fact, Elon did lay off over half the staff after taking over.
As with Facebook, Snapchat, and Google, (Alphabet), big tech earnings have been dismal last year due to inflation and people spending less time using social media. Some have come back up this year.
The growth of social media has also been declining since people began going out and on with their lives again.
Elon Musk Taking Twitter Private
What does going private mean when a company is public?
According to Investopedia, it means:
When a publicly-traded company becomes a privately-held company, the public company’s shares are purchased at a premium by the investors buying the company. The company is delisted from the stock exchange where its shares were formerly traded. Shares now can no longer be traded publicly.
Not only that but:
Why Would A Public Company Go Private?
Elon Musk wants to take Twitter private. He says it is needed to be private to grow and become a genuine platform for free speech.
Going private, or privatization, frees up management’s time and effort to concentrate on running and growing a business as there is no requirement to comply with SOX. Thus, the senior leadership team can focus more on improving the business’s competitive positioning in the marketplace. – via Investopedia
Now, that’s a great reason for Elon Musk to take Twitter private. As you may know, he runs a few other companies and time is of the essence for him.
He says it is needed to be private to grow and become a genuine platform for free speech.
Going private, frees up management's time and effort to concentrate on running and growing a business as there is no requirement to comply with SOX. #ElonMuskTwitter
Click To Tweet
Why The Turnaround Of The Twitter Sale?
According to Reuters: The sale would represent an admission by Twitter that its new chief executive Parag Agrawal, who took the helm in November, is not making enough traction in making the company more profitable, despite being on track to meet ambitious financial goals the company set for 2023. (You can see this from the chart below from Statista.)
Twitter’s shares were trading higher than Musk’s offer price as recently as last November.
Will The Twitter User Base Go Up Or Down With Elon?
Many users are tweeting that they will leave Twitter if Elon takes over the social network. In fact, many did according to recent reports. Many users who were not happy with Elon left to join Mastodon.
However, they are many more that did join or rejoined the network when he took over.
It is hard to tell which audience is larger at the moment.
It will be fascinating to see where the Twitter user growth goes after Elon begins to make changes to the Twitter network.
According to Similiar Web, the stats today show a decline of over 7% in Twitter app usage year over year.
However, Elon claims it is up. It’s hard to know these days who to believe. So many people want to see Elon fail as they truly hate him.
More Leaving For New Meta Threads
Yesterday Meta released their Twitter alternative called Threads. Mark Zuckerberg’s company hired many of Twitter’s old employees that Elon Musk had fired when he took over.
Now Elon is claiming that Mark stole Twitter’s trade secrets, violating both state and federal laws.
Over 30 million people signed up for the new Threads social network. However, it is not available in Europe due to privacy concerns.
Enough motivation to uninstall these two.. #InstagramThreads #instagram #threadapp #Threads #ThreadsApp #ThreadsInstagram #threadsvstwitter pic.twitter.com/MnqL9Ce2YL
— Praveen Kumar (@by_PraveenKumar) July 7, 2023
Will Threads be successful or go the way of the Metaverse? Time will tell.
What Are The Demographics of This Social Network Site?
- 70% of users are male (worldwide) More females in the United States use the Twitter social platform
- 25-34 is the average age of users
- Demographics show most have college degrees
- Most earn over 75k+
These stats were interesting to see as many of my friends and customers active on social do not fit the above demographics. Will the audiences change with Elon as the Chief Twit?
$3 Million in Savings With Elon On Twitter As CEO
Elon also promised he would not take a salary saving the company $3 million per year. However, as a private company, there will no longer be a board that needs to be paid so the savings maybe even be much higher.
(There is a rumor, that Elon may bring Jack Dorsey back who has been tweeting of late!) Not so! Jack recently started BlueSky – another alternative network.
Musk On Twitter Censorship
The biggest change we will probably see is that censorship will become a thing of the past. That’s the hope at least with Elon Musk on Twitter as CEO.
He claims he is not in it for the money but wants to preserve our freedom of speech. Will he be able to stand up for it as time goes on as CEO of Twitter?
Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.
What should be done? https://t.co/aPS9ycji37
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2022
How will he accomplish this? Will all those that have been censored be allowed back on this social network?
Will he still take down some tweets or suspend more accounts on the social media network like Facebook continues to do?
It appears Twitter still suspends accounts and it’s not 100% free speech on the network though it’s more fair and balanced than the other big mainstream social media networks have been.
Even the new Threads have suspended accounts and censored posts on their first day out of the gate.
First users complain about being #censored on #MarkZuckerberg‘s new #Threads #Twitter clone #app.#Meta#Metaverse pic.twitter.com/6OpgI6Kwu1
— MidnightVisions (@MidnightVision5) July 6, 2023
Can Elon Musk On Twitter Unite And Inspire Us?
My hope is that Elon Musk can most certainly inspire and unite us on the town square as they call it. People of all opinions and sides should be able to congregate there and discuss the issues of the day.
Maybe we can all learn from one another as we connect with other users on the social platform.
But if we stay on one the one-sided network, how will we know how the other side feels or needs? How will this country ever unite that way? People are even moving to other areas of the country to be near like-minded people.
Having discussions to bring out the best in people and finding solutions to our problems is the best way.
Sadly, it hasn’t happened yet, but there is always hope!
My hope is Elon Musk can help us do this for all of us and inspire us along the way on the social media platform.
The Edit Button Is Here
Will the infamous edit button request from Twitter users finally come to fruition? That was one of the first signs that Elon was taking over Twitter when he asked users if they wanted to see the edit button.
For years, users on the platform wanted an edit button but the company pushed back. The tweets were public records and even used in court cases.
Today the edit button is available to Twitter Blue subscribers who pay $8 per month in the United States for the subscription service. However, you can only edit your tweet, not your replies to others as I have been testing the subscription service.
However, Facebook allows edits on their posts and their posts have been used in court cases as well over the years.
Are Spam Bots Going Away with Musk on Twitter?
Another Twitter drawback that Elon wants is to get rid of the spambots that have flooded the network for years. There have been times years ago when all you could see were spam tweets.
However, I must say they are not as bad as they once were although just yesterday I saw more springing up on my Twitter account. One last fling for the spam bots of Twitter?
If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 21, 2022
Crypto Payments on Twitter
Another possibility with Elon in charge of Twitter would be the bitcoin-type payments for premium “Blue” service on Twitter via Dogecoin, of course.
Not only that but Elon also wants to get rid of ads on the Twitter network. Where will advertisers go next?
Who would NOT like lower prices for a premium Twitter service?
And as far as the advertisements go, Elon hired a new person to increase ads on the network as many big “left” companies left the network under Elon. Some have returned in the past few months but others have not.
The success of Twitter 2.0 is all of our responsibility.
We need to think big.
We need to transform.
We need to do it all together.— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) June 12, 2023
Will Apple And Google Eliminate Twitter In The App Stores?
When Twitter eliminates censorship on its platform as Elon promised, will the app stores no longer offer the Twitter app in their app stores? They took away the other alternative social networks from their stores when they allowed free speech.
This will be an interesting development to stay tuned on. He could get private servers like other networks like Minds, Gab, and Rumble has had to do.
There is also speculation that Google may no longer show tweets on their search platform. It has NOT happened yet. But it would be another way for big tech to censor Twitter.
How To Follow Elon Musk On Twitter
Now if you want to follow Elon Musk on Twitter just hit the follow button on his profile. See the screenshot below of his profile. Not only that, but you can also subscribe to his tweets and see his latest tweets in your own feed.
As you can see from above from Elon’s Twitter profile he has been a long-time user of the social network. Elon recently changed his profile picture to a professional photo of himself.
He was preparing to take over Twitter. (Since writing this, he has changed it back again to other images, interesting!)
Today in July of 2023 he has over 146 million followers on the network.
Now, if you want to know what Twitter changes may affect YOU or your business – read my latest post on Anthony Gaenzle’s blog.
What Do YOU Think About Elon Musk Twitter As Chief Twit Today?
I’d love to hear from you on the topic of Elon Musk on Twitter. What do you like about the new ownership of Twitter or what you do not like about it?
Which feature would you be most excited by? Will you stay or leave for other social channels?
Let’s discuss this topic in the comments below. Don’t forget to learn the basics of Twitter by purchasing my eBook below!
The post Has Elon Musk On Twitter Been Successful As Chief Twit? appeared first on Inspire To Thrive.
