Good morning: Elon Musk’s Twitter bid

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Good morning, Marketers, and there’s a threat to social as a marketing channel.

No, the threat isn’t imminent and may not be fatal, but social media in the U.S. is facing some headwinds, one of which is Elon Musk. By the time this newsletter drops into your inbox he may have changed his mind three more times about his intentions toward Twitter. First he talks about a seat on the board, then he withdraws from that and mounts a hostile takeover. What next?

Everyone has their own opinion about Musk, but I think we could agree that he’s an unpredictable, volatile and very strong-minded individual. Mark Zuckerberg, in many ways, is unlike Musk — but he’s strong-minded too and has, I would say, an idiosyncratic worldview.

Zuckerberg is unassailable at Facebook because of his control of voting shares. If Musk buys Twitter he’s going to be in a similar impregnable position. To have Twitter join Facebook/Instagram as essentially a personal fiefdom puts a huge portion of social media into the hands of just two individuals — and perhaps not the first two one would choose. That doesn’t look healthy to me.

Kim Davis

Editorial Director

Shorts 

What we’re reading. Thought-provoking observations by Peter Weinberg of the B2B Institute. Engagement highly over-rated compared to simple exposure to ads. Big brands built their success before engagement was even a concept — you couldn’t click on print ads of billboards but they seemed to work just fine. Also, “you are more likely to complete Navy Seal Training than ever click on a banner ad.” Read more here.

Quote of the day. “Taking Twitter private at $54.20 should be up to shareholders, not the board.” Elon Musk

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About The Author

Kim Davis

Kim Davis is the Editorial Director of MarTech. Born in London, but a New Yorker for over two decades, Kim started covering enterprise software ten years ago. His experience encompasses SaaS for the enterprise, digital- ad data-driven urban planning, and applications of SaaS, digital technology, and data in the marketing space. He first wrote about marketing technology as editor of Haymarket’s The Hub, a dedicated marketing tech website, which subsequently became a channel on the established direct marketing brand DMN. Kim joined DMN proper in 2016, as a senior editor, becoming Executive Editor, then Editor-in-Chief a position he held until January 2020. Prior to working in tech journalism, Kim was Associate Editor at a New York Times hyper-local news site, The Local: East Village, and has previously worked as an editor of an academic publication, and as a music journalist. He has written hundreds of New York restaurant reviews for a personal blog, and has been an occasional guest contributor to Eater.