Some Twitter users and advertisers have stated that they are leaving Elon Musk’s Twitter, but for both brands and consumers, that’s a customer service mistake.
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Elon Musk, Investors Buy Twitter
After a long, drawn-out process that had Twitter employees and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wondering if he would or wouldn’t buy the brand, Elon Musk closed on a $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. The deal survived a court case in which Musk and his investors sued to stop the deal on the basis that the Twitter board had vastly underestimated the number of bots operating on the site at about 5%.
Since purchasing the social media platform, there’s been concern that the outcome for Jack Dorsey’s San Francisco-based tech darling would be a bastion of hate speech masked as free speech. Activist groups have underscored this with the suspicion that President Donald Trump might have his handle reinstated. In the face of mass layoffs (inlcuding the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer), Musk tweeted to reassure advertisers that there have been no changes to the content moderation team since his Oct. 27 purchase completion.
Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.
Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
To be clear, plenty of bloggers have discussed various aspects of Musk’s Twitter acquisition including Gary Leff, and Matthew yesterday on this very site. Gary’s post reflected that United choosing to leave Twitter ads may or may not have been part of a general withdrawal from social advertising, citing Meta sales challenges over the last few quarters as well, along with United’s aim to align its brand. Matthew discussed the importance of Twitter for breaking news which sometimes comes from journalists, sometimes bloggers, and sometimes other informed sources, and the need for verification of identity.
Please read their posts for more on the topic, my quick blurbs left out plenty. That said, this post really isn’t about any of that.
Some Users, Brands Depart (Or Claim To)
Some users have proclaimed they are leaving the service as are paid advertisers. Many of those who have said they will depart have centered Musk’s politics and perceived changes to content moderation. The notable public figures include Sara Bareilles, Toni Braxton, Shonda Rhimes, and Téa Leoni, according to NBC’s running list.
Whether they will or not is another matter. Every election cycle, it seems a contingent on both sides of the political spectrum claim they will move “to Canada” – few do (following President Trump’s election in 2016, just 655 more Americans than a standard year migrated to Canada.) One of the stated reasons Musk challenged the purchase agreement was due to the extremely high number of bots (non-human users) on the service masquerading as genuine users.
Regardless of whether or not users actually leave or paid advertisers pull back due to uncertainty, political stance, the number of followers will drop simply by the announced reduction of bots.
Twitter Is A Customer Service Imperative
Leaving Twitter – especially before any changes to content moderation have been enacted – is a mistake specifically for travelers. Twitter is one of the few places where brands have been particularly responsive to customer issues because of the double-edged sword and the potential virality of a bad but correctable situation. When an airline employee misbehaves (though it’s more likely to be a passenger), customers have a direct line in a public fashion that the airline has a vested interest in positively resolving.
Twitter response times are often much quicker than call centers (and it’s 6x cheaper), social media reps for brands tend to be more empowered to actually resolve a situation simply because it’s public for everyone to see. Dealing with travel issues are key because: speed can be critical to a stuck traveler, alternatives are slow and other channels are powerless to resolve issues, and purchases are largers with more impact on the consumer than other purchases.
If you’re no longer on Twitter, access to quick and responsive customer solutions representatives are lost.
For brands, pausing or discontinuing advertisements doesn’t mean that their Twitter response teams shrink, but with any other public misalignment with being supportive of the brand could mean they are less likely to staff them. Risk of a public relations disaster is lower with fewer users (and the reduction of bots) defanging the threat of Twitter for consumers.
Twitter, in its current state, keeps travel brands responsible for customer care and leaves issues in the public eye.
Conclusion
Travelers should think twice before abandoning a channel that has been one of the least expensive, and most effective ways to find resolution to issues. Brands too should consider their departures, whether purely in advertising or in total support as costs are lower, and supporting clients on Twitter also gives opportunities to be publicly part of the solution. However, much like the threats to move to Canada, I doubt serious Twitter users, regardless of their personal feelings, will move to other social media platforms instead. Then again, maybe Sara Bareilles will prove us all wrong.
What do you think? Is Twitter an important part of your customer support toolbox as a traveler? Do you plan on leaving the platform?
“For brands, pausing or discontinuing advertisements doesn’t mean that their Twitter response teams shrink…”
Followed by the most inane drivel I’ve read by you in some time. Bravo.
@Dan – Thanks, always love meeting a fan.
For starters, get an editor. You have basic sentence structure issues.
Second, your point (near as I could make out, at least) is pretty weak. Short form – people should continue to support a platform they don’t like in order to publicly shame airlines they don’t like? Some real sharp shooting right there.
Further, what about the brand damage you’re going to have being associated with whatever mad king elon decides to do?
How about, no need to be insulting.
I guess he isn’t fan? He seemed to be pointing out critiques more than actually being insulting…
Lefties like yourself show that everything you do is based on emotion.
What nonsense.
Smells like classic journalism to me, but YMMV.
“Every election cycle, it seems a contingent on both sides of the political spectrum claim they will move “to Canada” ”
Some moves are not in the statistics. I threatened to move to Canada and sort of did. I still have one foot in the U.S. and not enough time in Canada to pay Canadian income taxes. Covid-19 showed me how precarious the border can be. Canada can slap the border gates closed at a whim. Therefore, I have learned to act fast and early in case the US government collapses, which is probably won’t.
Seeing as Castro Jr. has exhibited more tyrannical measures than the worst of Obama/Orange Man/Brandon combined, I’m not sure “moving to Canada” is actually a wise move, empty threat or not.
Who is Castro Jr, and what has he done?
Elon owning the snowflakes
I work in the field… at the moment it’s the liberals owning Musk.
Silly rabbit, most liberals own nothing. And the few that do think they are so much better than everyone else, that they are useless to society. Watching them try to figure out what went wrong Wednesday morning will be glorious.
Wednesday 11/16, right? because they are saying results will take a week
Well, between the incumbent party historically doing bad at the first mid-term elections plus all the redistricting, gerrymandering, and voter suppression by the GOP, of course the Democrats will lose.
Yea, that’s EXACTLY why you clowns will lose Aaron. Keep its up, it’s that type thought process that caused it. Rich elites like you have no clue what the average American is currently going though while you live off your corporate expense account thinking what you do actually matters in the world. A good look in the mirror Aaron would show you that you aren’t as important as you think you are and your sh#t still stinks as much as the next person. But, again, please keep blaming everything but the real reasons people are upset.
What alt-right talking points website did you copy and paste that from? Also from your tone I can’t tell whether you are projecting your own issues or are extremely jealous of my perceived lifestyle.
In any case, gerrymandering and voter suppression are still real things.
“suppression” much like “threat to democracy” are just democrat talking point not based in reality.
not surprising you spout them out verbatium without any second thought. Also you forget to mention democrats doubled down on their gerrymandering this election cycle so you’re excuse is out of date as of this cycle.
One constant is fraud and the reliance on fear the democrat party uses every cycle.
Maybe this time they won’t have to cheat?
““suppression” much like “threat to democracy” are just democrat talking point not based in reality.”
Nah they are both very real.
“not surprising you spout them out verbatium without any second thought.”
Not as much as you spout vile and disgusting racist, homophobic, etc comments. But at least my comments are valid.
“Also you forget to mention democrats doubled down on their gerrymandering this election cycle so you’re excuse is out of date as of this cycle.”
That doesn’t even make sense? Gerrymandering has been going on for decades, it isn’t anything new.
“One constant is fraud and the reliance on fear the democrat party uses every cycle.”
Nah. Pointing out the truth is never a bad thing.
“Maybe this time they won’t have to cheat?”
The GOP? Good luck with that lol
Not really.
Look, if the corporations felt that advertising on a forum that now caters to scumbags would increase their profitability then they would do so. Obviously many are now realizing that the bots and anti democracy Republicans that are going to flock to twitter aren’t going to fill their coffers so they are pulling back. Same reason united doesn’t advertise on Parler or truth social. They’ll keep their Twitter support until it doesn’t make sense, or until trolls create a verified united account for $8 to mess with people
are you paid to spread debunked democrat talking points or do you do it for free?
please get cancer and die.
What has been debunked?
I really don’t understand the “free speech” argument. What does this have to do with the government? Please, people can say whatever they want and people can react accordingly. And why would anyone care if a company advertises on Twitter? I also travel a lot and have never used Twitter. I guess I’m just confused at the argument here.
Why should customer service require the use of a Twitter monopoly? Why can’t each airline launch their own messaging app for timely customer service issues? Cut out the middle man—Musk. My interactions with my airline shouldn’t require me to run everything by him first.
-Each airline to launch messaging app
-To be created by the airline’s own software engineering team, or outsourced to a software engineering firm
-Each customer will have to download the app for each airline
-Plus more resources to train employees on how to use the app
OR
-Potentially pay $8/mo for a blue check
hmmmm.
When there’s eventually 20 different verified United Airlines twitter accounts, how will travelers know which one is going to help them and which is going to steal their identity?
It’s probably an easy add for the airlines into their apps, (except for AA, their app is garbage), and anyone communicating with the airline via Twitter will not be averse to having the app
An amusing concept… support weird politics because you need a service.
Captain, this is not logical.
The author is sadly funny, naive, and pathetic. Suppose that’s why his profession is a blog.
Claiming the Twitter issue is related to the aviation/travel industry is very tenuous at best.
There’s economics at play here that have nothing to do with the poster’s knowledge of the travel industry. I own a website with many millions of page views per day, it is my area of expertise.
As long as there are people reaching out to travel brands on Twitter, the companies will have people to respond to those posts. Advertising, however, is a completely different matter. Musk makes the absolutely pathetic statement that advertisers leaving is hurting free speech, when the actual meaning of free speech is that advertisers are not required to spend money on the site.
What Mr. Musk did not anticipate was that advertisers do not like controversy. Full stop. It is not worth it for advertisers to be in a place of conflict. Musk has some pretty strong political views and the world’s largest ad agencies are advising their clients to pause ads on the platform.
Musk has borrowed billions to purchase Twitter. His debt service is ONE BILLION DOLLARS per year. That’s a pretty big hit for a company that, to date, has never made a dime.
Based on the huge jump in anti-Semitism alone, brands know that seeing their ads next to pro-KKK tweets is not the image they want.
Companies are bailing on Twitter and moving to the open sourced Mastodon. Twitter will be around, but it won’tbe nearly as influential as it once was.
While you seem to believe musks blurb about moderation reports seem to indicate he has gutted the moderation team. So moderation exists but only in name
Apparently, reports on Sunday night that dozens who had been laid off have been asked to return as they were either laid off by mistake, or the company had since realized that their work was vital to build the new features Musk is seeking (yes, new features besides the new blue check mark policy).
I’ll wait to see what actually happens. If Twitter becomes a forum for hate speech, I’ll leave. If it doesn’t I’ll stay. I’m wary of Musk, but so far, I haven’t seen enough evidence either way.
Never thought I’d see the day that Journalists who peddle slander and think they are being subtle by quoting others, try to educate the rest of us about “hate speech” and “free speech”. There is only free speech and speech you are too incompetent to counter with facts or your own insults and therefore want banned, because boohoo crybaby liberal soyboy
Nah, using racist/antisemitic/homophobic speech is hate speech. If anything the people advocating free speech are the ones crying the most when they are called out for it.
but stating factual things like 60% of pedophiles are lgbt to people like you is “homophobic”.
It is homophobic because it is a fake statistic you made up, you vile disgusting homophobe.
Aaron, the comments section of LiveAndLetsFly is a cesspool and Matthew knows that and encourages this type of discourse. He encourages it by not moderating comments to stay on topic, regardless of the political POV.
He’s got his fans on the MAGA right that enjoy coming here and saying shit to stir the pot. They purposefully spread misinformation. Nobody cares.
Sometimes its fun to get into shouting matches with these MAGA a**hats but most of the time i would rather avoid him and blog (despite his great content), because there are other blogs/sites out there that are far more curated. Being curated makes them far more valuable. FlyerTalk, Reddit, CrankyFlyer, DoctorOfCredit .. all moderated so people stay on topic.
As for the actual topic of Twitter, Musk, LiveAndLetsFly remaining on Twitter.. this thread is really good take on the state of things:
https://twitter.com/sacca/status/1589732881232203776
@Ryan – I would point you to the commenting policy we established early in the year and as you specifically brought up the point of political aspects, here’s this:
“Sometimes they touch political areas and sometimes they do not – but regardless of what we write, conversations turn political in the current environment.
We have left the guardrails off these winding roads but quickly comments turn from politically agnostic to charged with vitriol. We are unapologetically democratic in nature and encourage challenging discussion in the comments, but these should avoid personal attacks and language you could not see printed in the New York Times.”
You can certainly point out the conservative MAGA commenters that have been verbose in the comments section, but don’t forget that during the Trump presidency we saw the same vitriol regardless of the topic that opined in equal number and without reservation. Cranky and DOC (I love and read both of those blogs) don’t do anything else – this is there sole focus. Matthew has two other businesses and I have three, both of us have families. If you’re looking for a free speech referee, the other two might better suit your needs and we do offer a 100% moneyback guarantee. If you don’t like the content on the page we will give you back every cent you paid for it.
@Ryan
Spot on.
How is the government preventing you from hurling racist insults and what does that have to do with Twitter? Why do people not understand the basic tenets of this issue?
i’m not so sure that your assumption in your Blog is correct. If Twitter becomes a hellscape, it is/was the right decision. If Elon makes a soft landing, they can always go back. Were i the CEO, and thankfully i am not, leaving for a period would be the decision i would have taken also.
Musk has already shown how erratic and bizarre he can be. If Twitter does not control the content, then it is absolutely imperative that companies leave Twitter, regardless of the is value in customer service. I’ve deleted my personal Twitter account and the app once Musk bought the company. Other individuals and companies should also STOP using Twitter or advertising on Twitter. The volume of hate speech, misinformation, and election lies has increased exponentially since Musk took over.
So what?
Side note / question .. Isn’t that debt service though the responsibility of Twitter and not Musk. Yeah he owns 100%, but they are separate legally. Kinda like the LBO’s of the 80’s (except this one went private).?
https://twitter.com/sacca/status/1589732881232203776