How Twitter Could Become Profitable

What's in a tweet? A $1 billion valuation of Twitter (Financial Times, September 25, 2009 http://tinyurl.com/yzye8tb), a company which is not yet profitable. The company is not managing itself to become profitable, nor managing its brand to control its image and build its brand. Twitter's business is content management. The company needs to emphasize its knowledge of content management and social media, which could be done through conferences, partnerships and a social media agency. Then it could become profitable.

Due to the novelty of social media, many in the advertising industry are unfamiliar with how to utilize social media for their clients and in advertising campaigns. Thus they seek advice from others in the industry by asking questions and attending conferences. Twitter could utilize its brand to organize paid conferences at which some of its successful users could speak, and teach marketers what they know about social media.

Twitter could streamline its applications and partnerships. The many Twitter applications, with Twitter or tweet in the title, dilute the brand, since the consumer does not know which are authorized by Twitter. The company could partner with one of the popular applications for disseminating content, for example, TweetDeck. Twitter would recognize TweetDeck as its official content management tool. In exchange, it could partner with TweetDeck to receive a percentage of TweetDeck's advertising revenue.

To become profitable, Twitter could start a social media agency business and manage companies' content for marketing, since it already manages content for companies and individuals. This business would build on its current operations by adding a revenue component. It is a natural extension of its business which would also strengthen its brand.

Conferences, partnerships and a social media agency: possibilities for Twitter to make its tweets financially viable.

Are The Shack Ads Effective?

Background
RadioShack launches new commercials in conjunction with their re-branding.

Problem
To learn the effectiveness of the RadioShack commercials

Methodology
Interview consumers on the street who have seen the commercials
Stand near Union Square, San Francisco, a busy shopping area with many pedestrians
Problem: many tourists who had not seen the commercials

Change in Methodology
Target of commercials: cellphone users
Find them: stand outside AT&T cellphone store at a busy intersection, Market & 3rd Streets - success!

Process
Consumers need to have seen the commercials, agree to sign waiver and agree to be filmed
Not easy to satisfy all 3 requirements, but through persistence over the course of 3 days, achieved

Results
Interviews show that consumers understand RadioShack's re-branding and new direction
Interesting finding - negativity about the name change, which should be monitored re: the brand's image
Focus on cellphone customers should not ignore RadioShack's other customers; RadioShack offers many other products besides cellphones