Twitter For Sale – Who’s Looking To Buy And Why?
Twitter has not had it easy over the past couple of years. From the flat growth of new users to a torrential storm of abusive tweets, the social network has been dragged through the mud a fair few times.
But now, things are starting to look optimistic, as it’s been widely reported that Twitter is going up for sale with some interesting companies looking to buy…
Who are these companies? Why would they want to purchase a social network in an almost purgatorial state? Let’s take a look.
Remember Google+? That failed social network you probably didn’t even realise you had an account for? We complained about its needlessness A LOT since its inception, so, of course, you already know…
Well, luck could turn around for the search engine in the social space by simply buying out the competition.
Will they rebrand it as Google+? Of course not – Twitter may be down in the dumps, but the brand is still worth a lot more. But take some of the more interesting social features of G+ and you’ve got a pretty good network:
- Greater community features
- Implementation of other Google products (adding Periscope to the YouTube live family)
- Improved searchability of conversational trends
SalesForce
If your work involves being sat anywhere near a desk, then chances are you know who SalesForce is - the cloud computing company that has its fingers in many pies including Customer Relations Management, Enterprise apps and Social Media account management.
Basically, they are the “business douche” in this three-way of interested buyers, but don’t count them out just yet…
The acquisition of this network will not only just be the viable business for them, but it could revolutionise customer care. At the moment, businesses are stuck in the dark ages of either dragging people offline or sticking to strict scripts designed to filter customers through to pre-determined funnels.
Changing the game of Twitter from fighting to be a relevant social network (which let’s be honest, is a battle it’s not going to win) into a socially-enhanced customer care platform would be a really smart move.
From one-to-one complaint resolution to massive pools of opinion to direct your business strategy, all it may take is one business douche to make us see it in a different light.
Walt Disney Co.
No, this isn’t going to be another Club Penguin. Please for the love of God don’t gamify this thing…
That’s right - even Mickey Mouse is looking to empty his pockets of change and buy the social network. Probably the more curious one of the three, so why do they want this.
In one word - media.
Disney has seen the monumental value in Twitter conversations surrounding TV shows.
Hell, I bet every single TV network sat down and seriously considered putting in a bid for the social network - just for the wealth of knowledge, advertising profits and future proofing of their own company they can harness.
For these guys, that main focus would be launching this into the stratosphere as a content & advertising platform. You won’t see much development in terms of the “social” element, but the video platform, general media platform and whole advertising business would be a very lucrative one.
So who should they side with?
Here we are - three different business with what I feel to be three different visions for Twitter:
- Continue pursuing Social
- Change tack to Customer Care
- Double down on Content & Advertising
The only question is… Who should they say “deal” to?
Well, personally I’d say their social ventures are not going to go anywhere. Their audience signs up but doesn’t do anything with the platform - so Google is off the table.
When it comes to customer care, it would be great to have a platform like Twitter focussed specifically on fixing this problem. But I don’t think Twitter is the vessel for it - something new should be created to give that industry purpose from the very beginning.
That leaves us with good old Walt and his Disney bros… The majority of users don’t tweet, but rather consume content on the network anyway, so to focus on this platform makes complete sense!
Sign on Disney’s dotted line, Twitter. Bow out of the social chase and focus on content. It’s your greatest asset.
