Elon Musk’s latest Twitter update ( it’s hard to keep up these days!) is announcing that for a temporary time people will have a limited access to only a few number of tweets that they can read per day …. and there’s different limits for paid and verified users.
This is a fundamental reminder that social media platforms are volatile. We as users get emotionally attached to these platforms because we spend a lot of time on them, become content creators, build communities, use it for our brands and businesses
BUT…. ultimately we have no control over them, we seem to think we do… but we really don’t. We are at the total mercy of those who run them.
Elon has been trying to figure out ways to monetise Twitter since he took over. He is a pure businessman, making money is what he does.
If you want to tweet more or see more tweets then upgrade to a paid, verified account. I won’t be surprised if this happens long term, and that this latest change is perhaps a test.
In more subtle ways we are constantly being controlled over what content we see from all social media platforms, we would be fooled to think we are not.
Instagram changes
On our home feeds on Instagram, we are now seeing a much higher volume of recommended posts then content from the pages we follow.
So now we have a huge decrease in seeing content from people or brands we consciously choose to follow, to being forced to see a higher volume of content that is recommended by instagram, based allegedly on our browsing behaviours.
But why can’t I just see who I follow?
I made a post about this recently and the amount of people commenting on it was revealing in how this forced change is making us feel that we are losing control over what and who’s content we choose to see.
Lastly, people will go elsewhere – that’s the beauty of technology and social media. Elon’s Musks latest abruptive changes to Twitter has brought a new wave of emerging new twitter lookalike platforms.
The most talked about one is Bluesky developed in parallel with Twitter and spearheaded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. It seems Bluesky is all about being a decentralised social network, meaning people are given the tools to help them form their own communities.
For me the reminder is always – have your own branded online platforms that you can control and have access to your own data, whether this is a blog you write, newsletter, website or podcast.
After all, we can only control our own content + narrative + our own branded online platforms.
By Alex Carvalho, Founder of Alex’s House of Social
