Twitter’s Latest CEO Outlines Her Guiding Principles for Managing the App

So what to make of latest Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino’s PR-speak version of her approach to managing the app?

Yesterday, Yaccarino published a series of tweets, through which she outlined why she selected to come back work for Twitter under latest owner Elon Musk, and what’s going to guide her decision-making on the app.

And most of what Yaccarino shared is predictable cheerleading:

“Elon knew space exploration and electric vehicles needed transformation, so he did it. It’s also becoming clear that the worldwide town square needs transformation – to drive civilization forward through the unfiltered exchange of data and open dialogue concerning the things that matter most to us. Have you ever ever been talking with someone particularly insightful and thought, it is best to have the liberty to talk your mind. All of us should. Enter Twitter 2.0.”

Yeah, that’s just about an Elon talking point – and I don’t know that free speech was as contained as Musk and his contemporaries wish to project of their public statements.

But this has grow to be a typical refrain, and a rallying call for Musk’s acolytes, so it’s no surprise to see Yaccarino parrot the identical here.

What exactly that may mean, in a business context, is one other thing altogether, and it’ll be interesting to see how Yaccarino, particularly, is in a position to balance this approach along with her remit to draw more advertisers to the app.

As a reminder, Twitter’s US ad revenue is down by almost 60% this 12 months, as a consequence of many brands opting out of Elon’s various changes on the app. Those have included bringing back previously banned users, lessening removals of violative content, putting increased reliance on the user community for moderation, and allowing ads to be subject to audience fact-checks via Community Notes.

A few of those may find yourself being positive steps, but at present, many brands are hesitant, and it’s Yaccarino that’ll be tasked with providing more reassurance on each element.

“Twitter’s on a mission to grow to be the world’s most accurate real-time information source and a worldwide town square for communication. That is not an empty promise. That’s OUR reality. While you start by wrapping your arms around this powerful vision, literally the whole lot is feasible.  You’ve to genuinely consider – and work hard for that belief.”

Yeah, more cheerleading, not overly insightful. ‘Wrapping your arms’ around a company concept is a selected highlight.

“The success of Twitter 2.0 is all of our responsibility.  We’d like to think big. We’d like to rework. We’d like to do all of it together. Our first principles are questioning our assumptions and constructing something latest from the bottom up. It’s rare to have the prospect to place a brand new future into the hands of one and all, partner, and creator on the planet.”

Again, it’s really a PR-style call to motion, plagued by bombastic platitudes, which is just about what you’d expect from the incoming CEO of an organization. However it doesn’t really provide a variety of insight into how Yaccarino will tackle Twitter’s key problems – though the note about difficult assumptions is what’s seemingly been key in Musk’s traditional business approach.

When Musk took over Tesla, for instance, there have been a lot of assumptions about what could and couldn’t be done with electric vehicles, with batteries, particularly proving to be a stumbling point for a lot of past attempts on this arena.

The idea was that batteries cost a specific amount to make, and couldn’t be made cheaper, but Musk broke the method down, sought out latest options, in keeping with technological advances and progress, and located latest ways to make it occur. That was a key turning point for the corporate, and that’s the identical approach that Elon’s taken ever since, re-examining possible solutions to existing problems, even in the event that they’ve been tried again and again before, and seeing if there is perhaps latest ways to handle them, with the potential for discovering latest opportunities.

That’s why he’s trying out various things that Twitter’s tested prior to now, like creator subscriptions, Twitter Blue, original video content, etc. Twitter’s tried, and essentially abandoned each of those projects prior to now, which is why most analysts are skeptical of Musk’s attempts – but Elon’s going to search out out for himself whether these approaches can work, with a brand new perspective, as opposed to only taking everyone else’s word for it.

Because if a special approach will be found, that might solve all of Twitter’s problems.

Twitter Blue, for instance, still hasn’t seen significant take up, despite Musk’s attempts to make it a more attractive package. But when Twitter could make it work, that’ll herald extra money, while reducing Twitter’s reliance on ad dollars, and potentially addressing a lot of its bot and spam problems in a single solution.

If Twitter can boost take-up, that will be ideal. But evidence would suggest that it may’t – which, again, is why outside commentators are critical of Musk’s moves. It’s less about ideological differences, a typical counter to Elon criticism, and more about historical context and data.

But when Elon can discover a way, as he has prior to now, it may very well be a revolution, despite what history may suggest.

That’s an interesting point of context in Musk, and now Yaccarino’s approach – that not the whole lot they do goes to work, but every experiment will give them more context. And even when those outside the corporate consider that we’ve enough context already to desert a few of these approaches, Elon and Yaccarino are going to challenge assumptions, and test them anyway, with a view to re-building the app in keeping with these principles.

Is that even possible? As an outdoor analyst, I’m predictably skeptical, as you may expect. But that is the best way for Twitter 2.0.