“Is Elon Musk insane?”
That’s the first thing my friend asked me when he sent me this video:
The videopic.twitter.com/cPWVO1MQCD https://t.co/d1kE5ICJ7k
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) November 29, 2023
At first glance, it does indeed look like Mr. Musk has lost his grip on reality, but I urge you, dear reader, to dig a bit deeper.
Full disclosure – I’m not a Musk apologist by any means, but I will admit that for the first time in my life I joined Twitter/X after he purchased it. And I’m not alone.
AND here’s the kicker: not only does Elon know that, but the advertisers do as well.
First, let’s talk facts:
Monthly active users across social media platforms
As you can see from the above chart, Twitter isn’t the number one social media site out there. When it comes to Monthly Average Users (MAU’s), it isn’t close to the likes of Facebook or YouTube.
Yet when you ask anyone about which of these platforms is the most influential, then things get interesting. There seem to be very few studies on what the social impact is between, say, Facebook Messenger and Twitter. Yet when you look not just at how many people are using these social media platforms, but for how long, then another story appears:
Average time spent per day by US Adult users on social media platforms
Still not convinced? Then let me ask you this question: out of all of these platforms, which one is being used by world leaders to set foreign policy? It’s not TikTok.
So what does this have to do with Elon telling his advertisers, including Disney and Bob Iger, to go f*** themselves?
Simply the fact that he knows that they’ll all eventually come back. They have to. Maybe the best example I can give as to why is to consider that, while Twitter/X isn’t the biggest guy in the room, he’s certainly the loudest. And the squeaky wheel always gets the grease.
Elon Musk 2014. Photo Credit: Tesla Owners Club Belgium, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
When I saw this interview, I was reminded of something ValliantRenegade said a while back: no matter what it is, advertisers will find some way to eventually get themselves in on it. Cable TV was originally supposed to be the solution to commercial-free television remember? Wherever there is a captive audience, advertisers will chase after it.
And, even though the number of users on Twitter/X is not as large as some of the others, the effects of advertising campaigns, especially when they go viral, are far more reaching on it than on any other platform. There’s a reason so many people blame Twitter as the source of cancel culture and for corporations bending the knee when they find themselves on the wrong side of the progressive message.
Elon doesn’t care because he knows he has what the advertisers desperately need – a captive audience. And he knows that these big corporations cannot risk missing out on that audience, especially in austere times where people are much more careful about what they spend their diminishing incomes and attention spans on.
Elon Musk via CNET Highlights YouTube
It will be very, very interesting to see where things are at this time next year.
Great article and the point is so valid. I remember something similar that’s relevant, I think (don’t I always–the price of age, a good memory, and curiosity/experience I guess:)
Once upon a time in the world of smokers and tobacco products, a bright guy at one of the majors came up with the idea of a cigarette aimed totally at women. It was known as Virginia Slims and was promoted with the slogan/themesong “You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby!” in that age of burgeoning feminism of the old school and the cigs were longer-but-thinner-in-circumference to promote the vision of the elegance of femininity with commercials showing women in sleek fashions doing feminine things while lighting up.
At that time the so-called wise heads of the world of advertising said it was a mistake and a waste of ad dollars and marketing muscle because, as I recall, women made up at that time something like only 25% of all smokers. The brilliant guy who came up with the idea nodded in agreement and said, “Yes, but if with this ONE brand I can get 100% of that 25%, that’s a bigger piece of the pie than any of the hundreds of other brands out there.”
He was right. So’s Elon. Influence is NOT the same thing as sheer reach. In fact, this is the inverse principle to the statements of Disney recently on how they had the highest number of movies out there…conveniently ignoring that they spent so much on these medium-to-lousy performing films that they were money losers, bigtime.
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