Apparently, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a new role as Twitter CEO. He will be re-making Twitter as a part-time job. But will his all-in commitment to the company turn toxic?
remaking twitter is a part-time job for Mr. Musk
Using some of the same tactics as SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk has attempted to remake Twitter. But it has turned out to be more of a nightmare than a blessing.
In the first week of his leadership, Elon Musk has fired some of Twitter’s top executives and laid off thousands of employees. He has even tried to rehire some of the people he fired. But many users are worried that Musk is going to ruin Twitter.
While Twitter is not the only social media platform that is plagued with misinformation, hate speech and bots, it has been a particularly hard nut to crack. The Twitter brand is struggling to gain credibility and turn a profit.
The Twitter brand has also been the target of a variety of impersonators, posing as celebrities and politicians. Some of the fake accounts have purchased checkmarks to show they are verified.
his all-in commitment to a company can turn toxic
During the week of his takeover, Elon Musk laid off thousands of employees from Twitter. He also closed down offices. And many of his rank-and-file staff chose to quit or move on.
Elon Musk has a reputation for using strong-arm tactics to push out top leadership. But he may have gone too far. Research shows that abusive bosses are less productive and have worse mental and physical health.
During the initial days of his takeover, Musk fired some employees for criticizing him in internal Slack channels. And some employees were told they would be locked out of their work email.
Some of the company’s executives were reportedly yelling at one another over late parts. A group of executives was wearing tuxedos. They were threatening bankruptcy if they did not launch rockets regularly.
his approach to human capital is a losing strategy
Despite its nascent state, SpaceX is still a ways away from reaching its 1% revenue goal in 2025. And, the company has only a fraction of the subscribers that Elon Musk had predicted in March of last year. This is not to say that the company is without flaws. Some of its top executives have been accused of being overly aggressive in their quest for a payday. But, the company could ill afford to make a rash of bad hiring decisions.
While we’re on the topic of personnel, it’s worth noting that the company has been in the news lately. It’s been the subject of a slew of lawsuits and a court ruling that could change the future of the Silicon Valley behemoth.
However, while Musk is trying to recoup a large part of his previous investments, his latest acquisition, Twitter, could be in for a rough ride. As of this writing, the company has roughly 100 employees in its San Francisco offices and another 250 in locations around the world. Those who are lucky enough to stay may have to endure an extended holiday season.
his decision to buy twitter
Earlier this year, Elon Musk signed a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter. But then he found out that Twitter had misled him about how many “bot” accounts there were on its platform. He later pulled out of the deal.
When the news broke, Twitter announced a temporary hiring freeze. It will only allow a few people to stay on the company, including its CEO, Amit Agrawal. Some analysts worry that Musk’s plans to open up the Twitter platform could hurt its revenue.
Musk has also suggested new ways to make money from the social network. He has floated a “slight” fee for government and commercial users. He has also criticized the company for not addressing spam and bot accounts. He has said that he would like Twitter to delete “bad tweets” and “wrong tweets” from the platform.
his desire to replace lost ad revenue with subscriptions made even less sense
During the last quarter, Twitter reported a decrease in advertising revenue. This is a result of a combination of changes to the Twitter platform and advertisers pulling back in uncertain times. Until recently, the social networking site was able to compete with Google’s YouTube and Apple’s App Store. But recent changes to Apple’s mobile tracking system have weakened the direct-response ad business of its rival.
Musk’s wacky attempt at the blue-check ad experiment has failed to deliver. And he isn’t the only tech entrepreneur trying to get in on the social networking action. The likes of Snap and Meta Zuckerberg are also cutting staff. So how is Twitter supposed to survive this ad-free apocalypse?
It’s no secret that Elon Musk is a visionary. Whether he can pull it off is another matter. He needs to devise a plan to replace lost ad revenues with something more substantial.
