The end of Twitter…as we know it?

ICYMI billionaire car salesman, space exploration pioneer, and father of children with names harder to remember than your strongest password, Elon Musk assumed a new role as owner and CEO of Twitter on October 27, 2022. Since we have had some time to let that sink in, many questions have arisen, namely Is it the end of Twitter entirely – or just the end of Twitter as we know it?

We polled our Planiteers and found the results to be evenly mixed with 57.5% voting “yes” in favor of Twitter surviving and 42.5% voting “no.” Here’s what the members of one of Adweek’s Fastest Growing Agencies had to say about the fate of the little blue bird…

*Edited and condensed for clarity.

Of course, Twitter will survive.
“If anything, the change of ownership has renewed interest in Twitter. It’s hard to phase out a social media behemoth (looking at you Meta). While Elon Musk may not be able to manage the platform long-term, I don’t think we’ve seen the end of the bird.”

“I think Twitter is by far the best news gathering device of all the social media platforms that exist. And I believe that many users, including myself, rely on Twitter to receive their news. For that reason alone, I think Twitter will survive.”

Outlook not so good.
“I think it’s probably too late to turn the ship around. The company was already bleeding money, and adding a poorly thought out subscription model isn’t going to fix that.”

“Elon’s just going to run the company through the ground with his horrible lofty ambitions. I think the verification check was the nail in the coffin for many advertisers. I think most companies don’t want their brands tarnished with the rampant spoof accounts going around (Look what happened to Eli Lilly). I used to be a pretty avid Twitter user but my feed’s been nonexistent lately.”

What about advertisers?
“Vendors are already discussing how major advertising agencies are recommending their clients to pull out dollars due to obvious brand safety concerns and credibility issues.”

Should someone else step in?
“My prediction is that as Elon Musk continues to devalue Twitter, its share prices are continuing to drop. I think the board of directors will force him out and “resell” the company. If I had to make a bold guess, Mark Zurkerberg will sweep it up for pennies or Jack Dorsey will re-purchase Twitter.”

But let’s not count the comeback king out.
“Elon has struggled through enough dubious decisions and foot-in-mouth moments lately But don’t forget:

• Tesla was a month away from bankruptcy when he saved it and then proceeded to turn it into one of the most valuable companies in the world.
• SolarCity was an absolute bust when he bought it and flipped it around. SpaceX was on the brink of total disaster, including literal rocket explosions and hemorrhaging cash; now it’s the best space program in the world, far exceeding NASA’s capabilities and cost-effectiveness in just a few years.
• Musk even deployed his fleet of satellites immediately, at his own cost, to provide Internet access to Ukraine that has been vital to their communications.”

“Is the guy way overextended? Yes. Does he say stupid, inflammatory, and sometimes offensive things? Yes. Does he fly by the seat of his pants? Yes. Is he good or bad for humanity? Unknown. But when it comes to business, he’s proven to be a pretty adept escape artist.”

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve witnessed the spread and retraction of misinformation, the debut and challenges of paid verification through Twitter Blue, mass layoffs, and some very loud quitting, and Mr. Musk is not even done onboarding!

As creative change agents, we live for changing things up and trying something new. As advertising professionals, we prioritize spending on ads that will be seen by your target audience. And as social media citizens, we’ve never seen anything like this.

So is this the end of Twitter? Not today, but as of November 29, it’s the end of Twitter as we know it.