Twitter is part of a revolution that has transformed how we communicate. For businesses, the impact stretches beyond communication to brand visibility, customer education, and amidst several haggles and speculations, Elon Musk closed his blockbuster purchase of Twitter at $44 billion, thrusting the platform into a profit-centric era with a $8 price tag on the verification badge. While this has raised several concerns on the future of the platform, sustenance of its community-centered culture, and user scheming to explore alternative platforms, we should also consider how this change could help businesses make certain decisions come 2023.

How are users adapting to this change?

For Musk, widespread verification would democratize journalism and give voice to the public, but is this really it? First, accounts engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be suspended. This will also serve as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue, a monthly subscription providing exclusive access to premium features for the most engaged handles on Twitter. The past few days have promoted numerous takes on user engagement and value by concerned users and brands. What’s more? Influential users globally are beginning to predict the drop in value of the blue tick and how it may define both personal and commercial brands.

What’s New?

Unsure of the direction the microblogging platform is headed, some big brands in India like Mondelez India, have joined the growing list of companies pausing advertising on the platform, while many are cautious about placing ads on the site, Economictimes.indiatimes.com hinted on November 7 that “Volkswagen, Pfizer and General Mills” temporarily paused advertising on Twitter in the wake of its acquisition by Musk. Just two days ago, ex-Twitter owner, Jack Dorsey, launched Bluesky, a new foundation for social networking – which would give creators independence from platforms, and users a choice in their experience amongst many other offerings. Bluesky by Jack also impressively recorded over 30,000 signups in less than 48 hours after its announcement. Bluesky’s services are currently in the beta testing phase as it prepares for a global launch.

Let’s Face It, How will this affect business decisions?

Twitter has a significantly large audience base that brands and marketers are able to tap into. Interestingly, the social media platform recorded a total of 229 million global monetizable daily active users (who also see ads). It doesn’t stop here. Brandtimes.com mentioned that about 57% of the total 104 million internet users across Nigeria, aged between 16 and 64, actively used Twitter during the third quarter of 2021. Currently, African youths are considered one of the most active Twitter users globally.

Twitter vs Bluesky

With high expectations of, and numerous possibilities of Bluesky’s functionalities, the platform may possibly serve as an appeal to those against Twitter’s acquisition. Ahead of its launch, Bluesky already positions itself as a competitor to any company that tries to own the underlying fundamentals for social media or the data of the people who use it. Fingers crossed. 

What to expect – Brands, Marketing and Advertising

The world adapts swiftly to change in an interesting way. For example, after the ban placed on Twitter in Nigeria in June 2021, the Nigerian government also moved to regulate Facebook, Whatsapp and other social media platforms. The result was the rise in the use of VPNs and the birth of new social platforms. Most recently, the global Whatsapp outage suffered on October 25, brought back the need for an alternative platform, especially for businesses thriving only in the online space. With the latest update on Twitter, most users and brands are probably looking to switch to similar platforms and would, of course, expect great experience.

AdWeek  reports that engagement rates for Twitter ads can be as high as 1-3%, much higher than Facebook’s average Click Through Rate – CTR of 0.119%. The benefit for Twitter is that its ads are in-stream, rather than pushed off to the side. However, average CPM (cost per impression) on Twitter is higher, at up to $3.50 compared to an average CPM of $0.59 on Facebook. With the latest development including changes made and possible inconsistencies, businesses will likely invest heavily on ads on other platforms. 

Terragon is one of such platforms businesses in Africa can strongly consider for “intelligent” customer engagement. As a leading data marketing technology company in Africa, Terragon provides intelligent reach to over 350 million profiles in Africa directly on mobile. Users gain immediate and long term returns on marketing spend to “ideal” customers from millions of consumer profiles available on our unique marketing platforms. Our solutions are also connected to data sources to receive and provide insights based on accurate and highly enriched data, essential to delivering targeted and contextual campaigns.