Phone: 
The Big Question We All Need to Ask Ourselves About Twitter in 2017
In the past year, there has been an enormous amount of coverage on Twitter and the struggles the company is facing.
These struggles have included, but aren’t limited to low engagement, difficulty monetizing the platform, internal disputes regarding CEO succession, employees leaving the company in droves, and questioning of Twitter’s core product.
That being said, it is important we ask ourselves one very important question when it comes to Twitter:
Are we holding it up to a standard it was never meant to be held up to?
Was Twitter meant to be the next Google? Meant to be Facebook’s arch enemy? Meant to be a company as big as Walmart?
The way things are going, the obvious answer seems “no”, but let’s take a step back here. Before we hold Twitter up to the same standard as Amazon or Uber, let’s keep a few things in mind before throwing in the towel…
1. Revenue
Let’s not forget in 2015 alone, Twitter reeled in $2.2 billion in revenue. That’s more than Wendy’s, Taco Bell, and Peet’s Coffee!
We don’t bat an eyelash when Taco Bell brings in $2 billion in revenue, but since Twitter, in the eyes of investors and the public, was supposed to be the next $30 billion social media giant, $2.2 billion might as well seem like a couple pennies and shiny rock.
2. Value
The value Twitter provides is undeniable. Whenever anyone needs breaking news — whether that’s checking in on the Turkey coup or checking in to see if Future dropped his mixtape yet — Twitter is where you go to.
Now, with Twitter’s partnership with the NFL, you get to experience live football games on the platform with thousands of other individuals, you get to watch the presidential debates live with one another, and more! All in real-time.
“We’re not just a push-live broadcast mechanism; we’re a conversation” — Jack Dorsey.
There are even people who believe Twitter is so valuable that it should be a public utility, free of any monetization expectations. At the Mobile World Conference back in 2011, Dick Costolo went as far to say Twitter should be like “running water”. The Library of Congress has pledged to document every single Tweet ever published (although they’re taking forever to accomplish this project, as the American government does so well).
Whether or not they are successful, the fact the government thinks a platform is important enough to archive, it’s safe to say the service has incomparable value.
Yet, what makes Twitter unique is exactly what has bit it in the ass time and time again. In high school English class, we would call this the “fatal flaw” of Twitter.
It’s succinct, 140-character limit was one of the assets that set it apart from other long-form platforms where posts were premeditated and inorganic. With 140 characters, you are limited to posting content that is off-the-cuff and stream of consciousness. Yet, the very same 140-character limit was exactly what has made ad space limited, and native advertising difficult.
It’s fleeting, time-sensitive feed (before it went through an identity crisis and tried to …read more
Source:: Social Media Explorer
