Twitter was one of the social media giants. But note how I say ‘was’. Now, Twitter is in trouble. The Chicago Cubs won the World Series. It’s their first one in over a century. But not even tweets celebrating this historic feat can lift Twitter out of it’s misery. Nonetheless, despite the decline, Twitter still innovates. Let’s see how.
First of all, we know Twitter delivers NFL games to us for free. It’s also streaming presidential debates. That should be good for them because these debates are the highest rated in history. Furthermore, they’re peddling video apps to other social media big wigs, like Apple TV. Twitter streams other mainstream content as well. They now changed their Twitter character limits, and even banned repeated Twitter abusers. All of these are very innovative? And there are other ways. But is it enough?
It doesn’t look like it. Stocks continue to plummet. In addition, abuse and bullying continues. In addition, people from celebrities to politicians report all kinds of abuse. This abuse ranges from racial slurs to death threats and rape threats. They’re laying off around 1 in 11 of their employees. Finally, one of their great innovations was Vine video-sharing. Now, they have to cut that off.
Several complained Twitter failed to advertise their NFL delivery. Therefore, only those on Twitter knew about it. So they failed to bring new followers to Twitter. Plus, NFL ratings are down this year. So they picked the wrong year to launch this. Yes, the debates brought in high numbers. But look at how contentious this election is. Don’t you think these debates will only increase bullying and abuse? Many complain Twitter doesn’t do enough to keep users safe, and they don’t enforce their own rules. As my high school US history Mr. Lawson said, “Rules are only good as enforced.” And now thy want to talk about peddling video apps. But the thing is, by 2016, we can get these apps anywhere. Are these innovations too late for Twitter? Can anything be done to save Twitter?