Elon Musk continues to throw Twitter elements into complete disarray, switching things off and cutting certain functions, along with staff, which may or may not lead to more problems in the app over time. Theoretically, it sounds like Musk has the know-how to iron out Twitter’s current ruffles and stabilize it, just that it might take time to get there. Long story short, Musk purchased Twitter for around $44 billion and is now looking for ways to make it more profitable to earn back what it cost him and keep its current roster of investors – Musk needs money, and he needs it fast, which is likely something not even an $8 monthly checkmark subscription plan would address.
In Five…
Let’s get right to the meat of this discussion, shall we? While many of Musk’s decisions, so far, have been ‘questionable’, here are some features and elements that might actually improve the platform:
Business Subscriptions
The most obvious and straightforward option to go with; businesses would basically pay a certain monthly fee to gain access to certain Twitter exclusives, designed specifically for business use. Twitter’s Professional Profiles already mark step 1 with this, which could work well with improved analytics, broader third-party tie-ins, and basically everything else that would contribute to a brand’s ability and capacity to gather, analyze, and monetize data.
Audience Segmentation & Access
Paid DMs are another element that Musk and his team are exploring. This element offers users the capacity to reach other Twitter users with direct promotions, for a fee. There are brands that have already expressed interest in the option, but another aspect that could be worth considering is audience segmentation and being able to Tweet only at selected users. Granted, Twitter has recently developed features like Circles that allows you to choose who gets to engage with your content. If Musk and Co. expand on that further, then it could offer businesses more community-building and promotion opportunities.
Making Spaces and Live-Streams Twitter Blue Only Offers
Making these broadcast options available to only Blue subscribers (currently $4.99 a month) will filter out a lot of the junk, which would actually improve overall Spaces engagement, with the best broadcasters noticing a big difference in their engagement and content amplification. True, though you might not see crazy-high sign-ups, it would help cement the exclusivity of something like Twitter Blue. This would also lessen the system load, allowing Twitter to better incentivize broadcasting.
Creator Profiles
Something other than professional profiles that focus solely on helping creators monetize their efforts would be a boon indeed. It’s another paid option, so it comes along with its own set of exclusive analytics tools, newsletter options, longer video and audio thresholds, and improved content accessibility. There are a lot of options that Twitter could build into a more advanced creator account offering, which should be interesting for those looking to boost their presence in the app.
Build Revenue Pathways via Partner Subscriptions
Twitter acquired the publishing platform Scroll last year before eventually being integrated into Twitter Blue, establishing a revenue share deal between paying subscribers and Scroll publishing partners. Of course, Musk and his team canceled the publisher deals, but it does pose another opportunity he should consider looking into. Micropayments are another choice and could help Musk better sign his goal of facilitating ‘Citizen Journalism’ in the app. It’s not hard to imagine Twitter users paying $3-$5 a month to avoid paywalls, provided that Twitter can sweeten its exclusive deals.
The Wrap
The main point here is that there are other areas of opportunities that don’t require devaluing elements of the platform or totally screwing ad partners, while they could also provide an improved user experience. Though currently in hot water, Elon does seem to have his own ways, so let’s give the man the benefit of the doubt – if he needs time and more radical proposals to stabilize the app, then let him have it. Otherwise, he should stop while he can.
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