Monday, October 5, 2015

Why marketing is a clear priority for Twitter’s new CEO

Steve Kaplan Marketing:

Dorsey has been interim CEO since former boss Dick Costolo announced he was standing down in June. Dorsey is one of Twitter’s co-founders and has previously served as both president and CEO between May 2007 to October 2008.

He will retain his role as CEO of Square, the payments startup he also co-founded. Adam Bain is promoted to COO having previously held the role as president of global revenue and partnerships where he was responsible for its ad platform and relationship with brands and agencies.

Anthony Noto remains as CFO and retains his responsibility for marketing while the firm looks to appoint a permanent CMO.

Making Twitter easier to understand

Since taking over as interim CEO, Dorsey says he has focused on upping the pace and quality of product launches. The firm has introduced a range of new features including longer DM messages, TV and event timelines, event targeting for Twitter ads and ecommerce integration.

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Speaking on a conference call following his appointment, Dorsey promised an “ambitious product roadmap” that would see a dramatic evolution in how Twitter is used.

That includes making Twitter easier to use for people that are not regular users, as well as making it more powerful for those that access the site on a daily basis.

“Currently our product makes people do a lot of work to realise the value and there’s a lot of initiatives aimed at making sure people can immediately get value and power out of Twitter.

“We are doing the necessary work to better communicate what Twitter is and why Twitter. And we are doing that from a communications, a marketing and a product standpoint.”

Jack Dorsey, CEO, Twitter

His comments follow growing criticism of Twitter for a slowdown in user growth which many analysts blame on a lack of new products or functionality. Research firm eMarketer forecasts user growth of 14.3% this year, slowing to 11.1% in 2016.

That slowing growth limits its ability to attract marketers and grow its ad business. It also allows other competitors in the social media space, such as Facebook and Instagram, to get even further ahead.

Forrester analyst Nate Elliot says Twitter must get back to “building products people want to use”, something he believes the company hasn’t done enough of and is the reason behind its stunted growth – both in terms of users and revenues.

“It’s time for Twitter to build and innovate. Not every new idea launched will succeed but if it launches enough new features, some will surely find a wider audience. And a wider audience is exactly what Twitter needs.”

The launch of Project Lightning

That starts with the launch of Project Lightning, scheduled for imminent release and aimed at grouping tweets around one event. Dorsey said the marketing team has been hard at work preparing its “first real integrated campaign” for the launch.

Noto, speaking on the same call, said the campaign would include four key areas including product, content, media and marketing and sales.

“When you see the product you’ll understand that it provides the type of ability we haven’t had in the past to do an integrated marketing campaign where we’re providing a very clear communication of the value of the product and when the user gets to the product they get that value as opposed to having to do something else – that is a big fundamental change.

“It will be the most integrated campaign we’ve had to date from a product launch standpoint. Having all four of our core competencies integrated into the product will increase the chance of success and communicating clear value then delivering it.

“In terms of the magnitude we will crawl before we walk before we run to make sure we’re investing in the product to achieve our goals but not in such a way that we’re not being responsible that we’re getting returns on those investments,” he explained.

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