After the radical change of Elon Musk, Twitter sails in sight

Distracted employees, cold customers, management with their hands tied, and a murky future: Elon Musk’s interest in Twitter, then his attacks, and finally his rejection, put Tom Thumb of social media on a very bad patch.

“The ideal thing for me would be for him to leave us alone, so that we can go on our merry way,” summarizes a Twitter employee, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.

This engineer evokes the departure of several employees and above all a “climate of uncertainty that does not lead to a truly serene state of mind”. “We are still trying to continue doing our work as normal, because the main reasons why we chose to work for Twitter are intact”, he tempers him.

Since mid-April – when Elon Musk expressed his desire to buy this “public square” – the social network has been the subject of a barrage of attacks and ridicule by the billionaire.

“Musk’s repeated contempt for Twitter and its staff creates uncertainty and delays that harm Twitter and its shareholders,” the blue bird’s lawyers summarized in the lawsuit filed Tuesday against the head of Tesla and SpaceX, to force him to maintain his commitment. . to buy the platform at the price agreed at the end of April.

The businessman’s statements “also expose Twitter to adverse consequences for its business operations, its employees and the price of its shares,” they continued.

Wait and see advertisers

“Twitter is going through a massive image crisis,” eMarketer analyst Debra Williamson told AFP.

Elon Musk repeated at will, without proof, that the network was infested with false accounts, in a much higher proportion than that given by the Californian company (5%).

“Attracting new advertisers isn’t easy when they’re wondering if a good chunk of your users are bots,” says Kellis Landrum, head of marketing agency True North Social.

Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, believes the libertarian leader has primarily scared off brands by criticizing content moderation.

The fight against hate and disinformation is widely advocated internally and by the American left, but also by many advertisers, anxious not to be associated with “toxic” messages.

In early May, during an annual marketing event where big ad deals are being negotiated, Twitter “failed to reassure them,” says the media specialist. “They didn’t sell as much as usual. And it’s been smooth ever since.”

The San Francisco-based social network can’t afford to lose customers. Unlike its neighbors (Google and Meta) who make staggering profits from digital advertising, Twitter lost hundreds of millions of dollars in 2020 and 2021.

stuck address

The group will capture less than 1% of global advertising revenue in 2022, according to eMarketer, compared to 12.5% ​​for Facebook, 9% for Instagram and almost 2% for the very young TikTok. And its user base could shrink in the United States, predicts Debra Williamson.

Elon Musk once had investors dreaming, evoking the goal of reaching a billion users, without specifying how he would achieve it.

Now, “we are witnessing a legal battle that will end either with Twitter in the bosom of an owner who in the end does not want it, or with Twitter alone and weaker than before,” says the analyst.

The case will continue for months, in a difficult economic context, which requires rapid adjustments in strategy, to monetize new audio and video formats, diversify sources of income, attract younger audiences, etc.

The social network’s lawyers also criticize Elon Musk for failing to validate “two employee retention programs designed to keep key executives during a period of intense uncertainty, caused in large part by their erratic behavior.”

Internally, some employees have also lost confidence in their management, which would have liked it to be more combative against the richest man in the world.

Parker Lyons, a financial analyst at the company, tweeted several “memes” (parody images) in which the board seemed cruel and unscrupulous, sacrificing the tweeting platform for the benefit of shareholders.