A few years back, social media hype went to its peaks with the whole focus being laid on Twitter after Facebook. A few tweets were expected to bring you to the limelight. Estimates had it that Twitter market value and shares would soar, but it failed to hit the mark. What happened to Twitter?
Some might argue that Twitter still has users and active celebrities as members. But, the raw fact is that these celebrities and tech savvy people make up the core of the Twitter members with a few people who are die hand followers of these celebrities.
The problem was that Twitter never made it to the normal masses. People did not recognize Twitter to be a social media platform to keep in touch with friends. At the same time, Facebook made it to the hearts of the people making it possible to keep them connected and thus people connected themselves with Facebook.
Where Twitter’s market capitalization is a mere $ 10 billion, the whopping number for Facebook lies at $280 billion. It stays along with Apple and Google in the list with over 1.5 billion users worldwide.
The initial Twitter setup team lunged off the ship along with Dick Costolo, the CEO, making this way out last summer. This had greatly affected the ideals behind it. The downfall of Twitter is a must know story for any startup or entrepreneur to learn some grave mistakes that led its way.
Let’s have a look at some key points to learn from this business startup failure:
Know when to go Public.
On expert analysis it was determined that Twitter had expected high of its success even before its release and had made the grave mistake of making the Stock Market Launch too early. There are so many aspects to analyze,study and correct before going for the IPO. The company was just in its developing stage when the shares were made public and this was a hasty decision. Share market offering could bring a company under the scrutiny and hands of the enormous Wall Street and Twitter could not withheld the pressure. The company did not have a proper scheme or plan for its business model yet. The ways to keep the attention of the users was yet not laid when the public offering had tore apart the basic structure.
Evaluate the Growth.
Keeping a close evaluation of the growth of the company at every point is essential. Twitter had a hot and bubbling time during release where growth as measured as active users, sales and subscribers, but when things went out of the track, the investors turned to find the reason with value metrics.
Innovation is the Key.
It should be bound to mention that there is a core group of Twitter users and the company at some point of time slowed down the innovations in the fear of losing the already existent customers with new elements. Any organization should be ready to go forward with some new features like offering their customers with coupons, so that market can be captured from the big players. That’s what Paytm did by offering paytm coupons from time to time to get more people involved.
Keep the Core Management Team.
The first CEO of Twitter was a good leader and kept his team working to bring out more from them. With his resignation and the moving out of several other members of the core team, the management underwent a phase of chaos. The executive team has to be added to and maintained to keep a startup company moving forward.
Oh the Founder Magic – Doesn’t always Work.
The co-founder Jack Dorsey got back into the company and some Tech Pundits will say that the company faced a low time after that. He is expected to make some changes to the overall feel of Tweeting but will he be able to make it above Costolo, has yet to be seen.
Connect with the Customer.
The company failed to connect with the customers explaining why and how to use Twitter effectively. There are so many social media companies coming up and Twiter failed to give a solid reason as to why people should stick to Tweeting. A few mentionable good moves by the company would be the Periscope and Moments feature, but the basic problem was not met with.
The final line to learn from Twitter is: Have a proper plan and get engaged with customers before making the big leaps.
