Reversing the purging of legacy verified blue check marks could be a peace offering for marketers to get back on the platform, said Amy Gilbert of social agency The Social Element.
After buying Twitter for $44 billion, Musk denounced the platform’s blue checks and instead rolled out a paid verification option as part of the company’s subscription product, Twitter Blue. Paying for verification led to fake accounts impersonating brands including Nintendo and Eli Lilly, causing panic inside brands and leading to a further pullback in ad spend.
“There’s a lot more that needs to happen in making sure that that platform feels secure, that they have people that are taking care of spammers,” added Gilbert. The Social Element primarily leveraged Twitter for consumer engagement but slowly moved to Meta’s platforms and TikTok after the blue check mark fiasco.
Compelling ad products
Just fixing content moderation and algorithmic transparency won’t make the cut for many marketers.
For Avi Ben-Zvi, vp of paid social at Tinuiti, Twitter needs to take it up a notch by making the platform more compelling for advertisers either in the performance, consideration or awareness part of the funnel.
“Can they get back to a place where they’re developing interesting ad products while emphasizing safety and ad revenue for advertisers?” he told Adweek.
Video has become front and center for marketers and platforms. Pinterest is testing Premiere Spotlight, which gives advertisers access to a premium placement for 24 hours on the Pinterest app’s search page.
These platforms are “very focused on developing things that advertisers are asking for,” said Ben-Zvi, adding, “That innovation has either stalled or been overshadowed by everything else going on at Twitter.”
Can Musk be controlled?
Ultimately, as Adland waits to see how Yaccarino steers marketers’ trust back to Twitter, the question industry leaders still ask is whether Musk can be controlled.
“Linda can hit the ground running—unless Musk interferes and loses control of his impulses, the way he way he did with his tweet last week when he hired her,” said Paskalis.
“If he causes her to fail in that role,” he continued, “there’s no one that can restore advertising revenue on Twitter.”