"People love a drama and there is nothing more dramatic than an Elon Musk drama."
I am “back” – back on Twitter after two weeks off in Vietnam soaking up the sun. As if I ever left, but you know what I mean. I long for the day when we can just switch off and bury ourselves in our own thoughts and depression.
No, just kidding.
I was reading this article on Dazed titled “Is modern life making us all sick?”. Highly recommend. We’re talking about: “microplastics in our blood; plummeting sperm counts; the existential threat of nuclear war; mass surveillance; data harvesting, and the looming fear of technocracy”. Can’t wait for this exciting future ahead. Then all of sudden, Twitter says hold my beer: they “accept Elon Musk’s $45 billion bid to buy the company” and it’s everywhere. Part of me desperately wants no part of it, I mean we’re just here for memes and funny tweets, but then the other part looks for a more detailed opinion on what it means. Call it the PR urge to weigh in on every single topic that’s happening on the Internet. Controversial. Didn’t Britney say “there’s only two types of people in the world – the ones that entertain and the ones that observe”? She knew!
Twitter doesn’t have a huge portion of the cake like Instagram/Facebook or TikTok, but let’s face it, it has everything to do with the outsize cultural impact. It’s what’s happening. Literally – people say Instagram is just the screenshot of tweets. If you’re missing out on the memes, the hilarious tweets, the love of my besties for The Saturdays’ Greatest Hits Megamix or Julia Fox’s “I actually did it myself“TM, you’re probably missing out. The misinformation, the heated arguments, the hate, the cancel culture on this bird app? Not so much.
It’s what’s about to happen. Newsrooms have long been dominated by the wires, but Twitter creates news and gives news a platform to thrive. It attracts the most influential people in the world: politicians, celebrities, and journalists. It’s changed the way news cycles work.
Musk is all about free speech – and wanted to take the company private. In the statement announcing his deal, he said, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” The deal has not been finalised yet as there are some M&A requirements to be had. (Sounds like I work for J.P. Morgan!)
But it looks like people are starting to move to Canada.
People are speaking like we’re in one episode of Marvel’s What If. I do have some “If” questions myself, like, if he has spent a tiny fraction of his fortune to do good, then I realise “If my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike”.
But enough of my rambling. What does this takeover mean for brands? What will happen in the world of PR and social media after the takeover? Twitter is reported to explore the subscription model, premium features, edit button and more. Will we have to lipsync for our life? Here are some thoughts (and prayers) from people who work in PR and social media, and they have one thing or two to say.
Andy Barr, owner of 10 Yetis Digital (@10Yetis/ Andy Barr)
People love a drama and there is nothing more dramatic than an Elon Musk drama. After the hyperbole and consumer rage dies down and Elon takes the wheel I very much think this is going to pan out the same as his other companies eg Tesla, StarLink and Space X. By this I mean that whilst he will be the eccentric owner, there will be a strong and capable board that will manage Twitter day to day and keep it on an even keel.
His comments about free speech and it being everyone’s right is fantastic when playing to the gallery of public opinion but the reality is that companies such as Twitter are bound by the same rules and laws as other platforms. The laws around not facilitating hate speech and hate crimes are very clear so Elon will need to stop the gesturing and get on with it.
Teela Clayton, communications consultant and PHD student (@TeeClayts/ Teela Clayton)
‘No wealth can ever make a bad man at peace with himself’- so said Plato. And by the reaction to the news of his $44billion acquisition of Twitter alone, Elon Musk won’t ever sleep again.
For a channel that thrives on its hyper polarisation, the Twittersphere is almost unanimous today in its assessment that Musk is a c u next Tuesday. From the names he’s given that poor diver guy and his own brood, not to mention his other, general dickish behaviour, the Tesla titan is certainly a controversial figure. But what does it mean for Twitter and its 330 million users? Well the problem is that Musk is a ‘free speech’ kinda guy who has roundly criticised the platform’s moderation policies. Free speech of course is a pseudonym – a free-for-all for racist, misogynist homophobes who love nothing more than proclaiming ‘all lives matter’ before telling critics of J.K. Rowling to die. Will it cause a mass exodus; high profile tweeters giving the bird the bird? Maybe. Will it lead to a rise in hate speech? Possibly. The medium is the message – as they say – but we have to take collective responsibility for the malevolent trolls spitting out bile onto their keyboards.
But honestly? I think he’ll get bored of it forthwith and go looking for his next fix/headline.
As for peace, Twitter won’t find any soon.
Ollie Ratcliffe, digital communications specialist at Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate (@OlliJamesUK/ Ollie Ratcliffe)
Honestly, a bit gutted they didn’t accept our offer first.
I think there’s a lot to like about Twitter and it’s been great to see brands really start to focus their attention on it, especially over the past two years. For Paid Advertisers, Twitter’s offering has some great features such as keyword/mention targeting and follower targeting and the team at Twitter UK have always been extremely helpful. That being said, it’s always felt a little bit behind the targeting granularity of the Meta platforms and priced slightly higher, a reason why I think a lot of brands and agencies have favoured weighting their paid media budgets more towards Meta in the past. With a tech giant like Elon getting onboard, this could perhaps be a bit of a shakeup and maybe we’ll see more advertisers on there in the future.
From an organic point of view, pffft.. it’s hard to say. Ultimately, we’ll always be led by what we think our community want to see from us first and foremost and if any big changes were needed, we’re positioned quite well to be able to move with it. For the most part, it looks like Elon’s biggest focusses are on functional changes such as an edit button and long form content so it won’t drastically impact how we use it or behave, if anything it just means that finally we can stop threading our tweets or letting spelling mistakes keep us up at night.
If I’m honest though, changes happen in social all the time – it’s just that this one has a pretty hefty price tag to it. We’ll just have to keep an eye on it for now, see how it all unfolds and adapt where we need to.
Rhea Mathew, social media manager at Battenhall (@rhea_mathew / Rhea Mathew)
How interesting this whole situation is. The take-over happened so quickly and it was quite something to see it break on social media around the world – It’s like no one could believe it was actually happening. I feel quite conflicted about this buy because it is a lot of money and I am unsure what changes are in tow for the platform and the company. I saw so many tweets from Twitter employees – tweets expressing shock, confusion, disbelief and uncertainty. What makes me worried is that in the name of free speech, they’ll be allowing accounts promoting racism, bigotry, disinformation back on the platform, and that is not okay. I think this buy will definitely change how brands use the platform. We’ll have to wait and see how it turns out over the next few weeks, and I’m sure we’ll hear from employees and folks on the inside. Only good things, I hope – but need to wait and watch.
I’ve asked Lee Benecke, digital and content strategy director at Manifest (@leebenecke/ Lee Benecke), about his thoughts on this deal. He didn’t hold back with a real and honest response. Dearest readers, you’re welcome!
Twitter and Elon Musk are kindred spirits. I don’t mean that as a compliment. Twitter is a chaos engine. Musk is a chaos agent. Both represent completely polarising views in a single body or platform and together we could really see the best and worst of both amplified beyond belief. Look at the evidence. Twitter is both a platform where free speech is welcome and weaponised, where hate speech is both accelerated and challenged, where identity is both celebrated and derided, and so on. Likewise, Musk is both the face of some of the most innovative and future-facing businesses on the planet (and other planets if he gets his way) whilst also being the poster boy of controversial leadership, problematic behaviour, and toxic shit talking on the platform he now owns and wishes to change. These two forces are now the same thing.
In his press release statement, his recent TED appearance, and across ALL the tweets leading up to his acquisition, Musk hit every note when it comes to outlining the problems Twitter need to solve. If it was anyone else, I dare say I may be optimistic but it’s Elon Musk. Musk has a picture in his head. It’s the old, unmoderated Internet, and he thinks we need to return to that. The truth is we can’t. Not because the platforms or the technology has changed but because society and culture has changed. His new toy lives in the now and the issues they face cannot be solved by regression, oppression, or anything else I see as Musk’s usual playbook. So we are stuck in a position where it will go one of two extreme ways. His views on free speech on the platform could equally solve the issue or set it on fire. His views on verification could equally lead to good or lead to really REALLY bad. His views on everything are polarising and he is about to execute them on a platform that revels in polarisation!
At best, Musk just releases an edit button no one really needs, reinstates an ex-President that no one really wants to hear from, and becomes the Citizen Kane of his own media platform where he will continue to tweet weird, controversial, and problematic opinions whilst others clean up the mess and try to make change happen. At worst, everything explodes. Every negative trait that exists on the platform becomes the absolute norm and Musk becomes the ‘Elmo Rise’ fire meme. One thing is for sure, it will be one of these because, again, neither Twitter nor Elon Musk live in the calm and happy middle.
The theme that seems to stand out the most about Twitter, according to our esteemed guests is the sense of community, but also the hyper polarisation. While Facebook is for unfriending someone after seeing their birthday notification popping up (no, but yes?!), “Instagram feel a bit saturated and passive” (as Ollie pointed out), Twitter offers a way to make conversations engaging. With Elon Musk rooting for a future where free speech thrives, will the new community be a desire or a debacle? I wish I could think of any other fancy way to say it, but we just have to wait and see.
