Welcome back to What’s Up Twitter. Thanks for joining me for a moment as we look at how Elon Musk continues to improve Twitter this last week and lead it into a financially healthy place.
Four changes this week involve thoughtful ways for Twitter to generate a revenue stream based on providing value and a good user experience for organizations and individuals.
- Major advertisers support Twitter over the Super Bowl
- Twitter Blue expands to 6 more countries
- Verified Organization plan for Gold checks and Affiliates
- Enterprise API
Major advertisers show support for Twitter
February 2: Elon Musk takes moment to thank the National Football League (NFL) and major advertisers for their support as we approach Super Bowl Sunday. PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch are just a few companies that welcome the opportunity to make deals with Twitter.
Paid Twitter Blue expands
February 3: Twitter Blue is available in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Spain. Maren Kahnert creator of Elon Musk Interviews reported that she signed up for Twitter Blue. Deborah in France thanked Elon Musk, saying “France Loves Twitter!”
Verified Organizations with Twitter
February 3: Twitter opens early access to its Verified Organization plan. In a tweet from Matt Navarra, some of the details were revealed. A Gold checkmark for organizations ($1000/month) and affiliation badges for its associates ($50/month) will boost Tweets by that organization.
My take is this is a great deal for organizations as it is an inexpensive way to advertise. Imagine advertising for only $1000/month? It should encourage engaging and creative ‘marketing’ tweets.
February 7: As suggested by Twitter user Nima Owji, Twitter created a tab for affiliates. The Official Tesla account has 7 affiliates on their tab.
Enterprise API with Twitter versus “Free API”
February 4: Elon Musk listens to feedback from Twitter users, he states “Responding to feedback, Twitter will enable a light, write-only API for bots providing good content that is free.” *API means Application programming interface and one benign example is the below account for Pepito.
Commenting on a link to a beloved bot account called Pepito the Cat, Elon Musk delighted users by agreeing, “I guess we could give all Verified users access to the API for posts like this.” You can follow this account at https://twitter.com/PepitoTheCat and here’s the French feline!
February 8: The Twitter dev team shared information about “Enterprise API” in a series of tweets,
“We have been busy with some updates to the Twitter API so you can continue to build and innovate with us. We’re excited to announce an extension of the current free Twitter API access through February 13. Here’s what we’re shipping then: Paid basic access that offers low level of API usage, and access to Ads API for a $100 monthly fee. A new form of free access will be introduced as this is extremely important to our ecosystem – limited to Tweet creation of up to 1,500 Tweets per month for a single authenticated user token, including Login with Twitter. Also on February 13, we will deprecate the Premium API. If you’re subscribed to Premium, you can apply for Enterprise to continue using these endpoints. This is a new chapter for the Twitter API to increase quality, reduce spam, and enable a thriving ecosystem. We appreciate your patience as we implement these changes and we can’t wait to see what you build next! Stay tuned for more information on continued Twitter API access.” - Twitter devs
Avoiding bankruptcy
February 5: Elon Musk expressed appreciation for all who are supporting Twitter. Bankruptcy has been avoided under Elon’s leadership even as he spent countless hours at Tesla and SpaceX. Elon Musk would like to see Twitter become financially healthy soon.
“Last 3 months were extremely tough, as had to save Twitter from bankruptcy, while fulfilling essential Tesla & SpaceX duties. Wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone. Twitter still has challenges, but is now trending to breakeven if we keep at it. Public support is much appreciated!” - Elon Musk “To be extra clear, Twitter is definitely not financially healthy yet, but is trending to be so. Lots of work still needed to get there.” - Elon Musk
Elon was asked by a Twitter user if it is “Worse than 2008 or production hell?” Elon replied, “Similar.”
February 5: Elon Musk’s team is called to fix an issue reported by many Twitter users. Elon said, “Daily user count & total user minutes are still strong, but engagement on some accounts is weirdly low.” – Elon Musk
Elon Musk is constantly engaged with Twitter users and this is a big reason why Twitter is able to improve so rapidly.
Twitter Files are appreciated by most Americans
February 6: Most Americans approve of the Twitter Files. A poll conducted January 31 – February 2, 2023 by Rasmussen Reports found that 63% of American adults approve of Elon Musk’s decision to authorize the publication of the “Twitter files” and 42% strongly approve.
I think the Twitter Files are Elon Musk’s brilliant way of “disinfecting with sunlight” to clear the decks at Twitter and win the public’s trust.
February 6: T(w)itter Takeover News found an update on the Twitter App designed to give Twitter a seamless and enjoyable experience. The update allows the user app to default to whichever tab so you will not have to switch back to “For you” or “Following.”
Twitter as a place for everyone
February 7: Elon Musk tweets, “Going forward, Twitter will be broadly accepting of different values, rather than trying to impose its own specific values on the world.”
My take is this is essential to preserving humanity and it may even serve to extend the window of opportunity for humans to make it to Mars.
Twitter can be a communication tool that can save lives. It is much more than entertainment.
February 8: In the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey the Turkish government contacted Twitter to say they are restoring Twitter access in the country. Elon Musk said, “Twitter has been informed by the Turkish government that access will be reenabled shortly.”
Longform Tweets
February 8: Twitter Blue rolled out an amazing feature where people can now tweet up to 4000 characters instead of just 280. Here’s the details:
“need more than 280 characters to express yourself? we know that lots of you do… and while we love a good thread, sometimes you just want to Tweet everything all at once. we get that. so we're introducing longer Tweets! you're gonna want to check this out. starting today, if you’re subscribed to Twitter Blue in the US you can create longer Tweets. most standard functions of Tweeting still apply, whether you want to post a picture, use a hashtag, or create a poll. but now you can type all the way up to 4,000 characters. for now, longer Tweets on web can't be saved as drafts or scheduled to send later. but don’t worry, Twitter is still Twitter. we know longer Tweets could mean a lot of scrolling, so they’ll be capped at 280 characters on your timeline and you’ll see a “Show more” prompt to click and read the whole Tweet. while only Blue subscribers can post longer Tweets, anyone and everyone can read them. you can reply to, retweet, and quote Tweet a longer Tweet, no matter if you’re a Twitter Blue subscriber or not. subscribers will be able to reply and QT with up to 4,000 characters. let us know what you think. we’re excited to see how you use the extra space! if you’ve got more to say, you can subscribe to Twitter Blue by clicking the link in our bio.” - Twitter Blue
CONCLUSION
The tide is turning slowly in society and I am starting to hear some people speak up about how thankful they are that Elon Musk bought Twitter. And for Twitter to be a platform for free speech it must also be financially successful and I believe it is heading in that direction under Elon Musk.
- Major advertisers like the NFL are showing support for Twitter
- Users in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Spain can now pay for Twitter Blue
- The Verified Organization plan is valuable for both Twitter (revenue) and organizations. It provides the Gold Check and can be used by companies for marketing
- Enterprise API from Twitter and other API features may create revenue
- Honoring transparency, Elon Musk explained Twitter was being saved from Bankruptcy
Get up to speed with Twitter
Twitter Could Usher in a New Era for Citizen Journalism with Payments | Visibility | Dogecoin This article highlights the news from the week of February 1 at Twitter. The biggest news was Elon Musk utilizing Twitter to encourage citizen journalism through payment sharing.
In my article “Twitter Just Gets Better with Elon Musk at the Helm,” read about how Twitter is on the path to becoming a one-stop shop for people to keep folders with categorized information, a place to come for news, and a place for content creators to earn an income for their efforts.
Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Twitter – February 8, 2023. All Rights Reserved. My goal as an author is to support Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both goal as an author is to support Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both making lives better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization.
My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider a monthly donation to support!
My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider a monthly donation to support!
My writing about Twitter strives to be accurate & leave you feeling optimistic and excited about the future. If you’re able, consider an annual donation to support!
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