{"id":16832,"date":"2022-11-11T13:09:36","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T13:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/letter-from-the-editor-yes-we-have-to-talk-about-twitter\/470913\/"},"modified":"2022-11-11T13:09:36","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T13:09:36","slug":"letter-from-the-editor-yes-we-have-to-talk-about-twitter-via-sejournal-amanda_zw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/?p=16832","title":{"rendered":"Letter From the Editor: Yes, We Have to Talk About Twitter. via @sejournal, @Amanda_ZW"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The opinions expressed within this story are solely the author\u2019s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of Search Engine Journal or its affiliates.<\/i><\/p>\n

Greetings, SEO pros, digital marketers, journalists, and curious minds among us. For I have the pride, the privilege, nay, the pleasure of addressing my very first official \u201cLetter From the Editor\u201d to such an esteemed audience.<\/p>\n

And as much as I hate to kick things off on this note: We have to talk about Twitter.<\/p>\n

I know, I know. You don\u2019t want to talk about Twitter. I don\u2019t want to talk about Twitter. Nobody wants to talk about Twitter. But would you rather talk about the U.S. midterm elections? Yeah, me neither.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with an extremely broad timeline of events. You know the old trope: Billionaire Boy meets social media, social media gives into Billionaire Boy\u2019s often nonsensical ramblings and, next thing you know, Billionaire Boy is offering (threatening?) to purchase one such social media platform, only to abandon it at the altar and come running back for an actual purchase.<\/p>\n

Forgive me; I have a penchant for storytelling.<\/p>\n

And since then, it\u2019s been genuinely difficult to keep up \u2013 even for those of us who live in the trenches of this industry\u2019s news.<\/p>\n

How much does Twitter Blue cost<\/a>, anyway (that is, if it still exists<\/a>)? Are recently laid-off employees actually being asked back? What is \u201cfree speech,\u201d anyway, when you\u2019re not making jokes<\/a> about Twitter\u2019s new owner? And, honestly \u2013 what the heck is Mastodon?<\/i> (I recently joined that last one, actually \u2013 but that\u2019s a story for another day.)<\/p>\n

I know we promised not to talk about the elections, but \u2013 hoo, boy. If not for them, we\u2019d have absolutely no variety in this whiplash-inducing Tech Nerd News Cycle™️(of which I am a proud and willing participant).<\/p>\n

As I said to a forlorn, non-industry friend (as if she doesn\u2019t have enough to deal with as a high school science teacher) over brunch, \u201cI am loath to give Billionaire Boy airtime in my personal life, but it\u2019s all I can talk about because, apparently, I hate myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then, one of my esteemed colleagues made a good point: Why the uproar over Twitter\u2019s massive layoffs, and barely a peep (at least, from a birds-eye view) about those at Meta<\/a>?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s more than a fair point. This move is just the latest in Meta\u2019s modus operandi of airing its dirty laundry when it thinks no one is watching \u2013 for instance, on a significant holiday weekend or during an already chaotic news cycle when, say, a major election cycle in the U.S. or one of its industry peers is already making endless headlines.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not like Mark Zuckerberg is exactly the quintessential \u201cgood guy\u201d \u2014 hell, he\u2019s not even a modicum of a tragic hero \u2014 and is, at best, \u201cthe guy who charges you to grow virtual farmland,\u201d as the same colleague put it.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, the nonstop chaos of the situation at Twitter makes it hard to quit the drama of it all. So much about this takeover has been a complete mess since the beginning, starting with Musk\u2019s oopsie-just-kidding-I-don\u2019t-actually-want-to-buy-Twitter, ranging to the legitimately dangerous<\/a> implications of the verification-for-hire feature.<\/p>\n

Think back to the spring of 2018, when the company then known as \u201cFacebook\u201d faced an endless barrage of bad news; namely, when it seemed as though the U.S. news cycle couldn\u2019t be bothered with anything but the notorious CEO\u2019s congressional hearings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sure, another midterm election cycle was on the horizon. But it was too many months away to be a sufficient distraction, and it wouldn\u2019t be for another few weeks that Musk emerged as Tech CEO Enemy #1 after a highly publicized (and bizarre) Tesla earnings call<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the writing has been on the wall with Musk\u2019s volatility for some time now. But it\u2019s only a matter of time before the pattern repeats itself, and one of his industry peers once again steals away the Tech Nerd News Cycle™️ spotlight \u2013 especially since most of you, according to our own poll<\/a>, aren\u2019t ready to leave Twitter just yet.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m giving it time. And over that course of time, my looming questions revolve around what will be left for Musk.<\/p>\n

If enough users and advertisers alike flee the platform (and, by the way, where will they ultimately take their money and time?), and enough key executives resign<\/a> \u2013 will Twitter become a hollow echo chamber of one man\u2019s proclamations? After all, if an ultra-rich dude yells in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?<\/p>\n

On that note \u2013 I think I\u2019ve talked about Twitter enough for one day. And shockingly, there have<\/i> been other newsworthy items that caught my eye this week:<\/b><\/p>\n