The real social cagefight 😲

(and one guy is waaaaay bigger)  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

​ Hey, I'm unexpectedly on the road this weekend and really getting to test my slimmed down mobile office set-up. Can I put together a newsletter using only my phone and Remarkable 2? If you're reading this, I guess I can. It's so nice to wander around without the laptop - especially when traveling light on a last-minute trip. Which is handy for another reason, because work responsibilities don't disappear just because I've decided to spend a few days further south eating my weight in choco frito. That is one hidden plus of having sponsors for this newsletter - I can't cry off just because I'm on the lam. And thank you for all your feedback on that topic last week. I was pleasantly surprised how positive the reaction was - but of course I'm also listening to the more critical feedback as well; even though it was a small amount, it's still important to me. Today we're going to talk about the big news story of the week, Twitter's continuing implosion, and Meta's runaway launch of a competing service: Threads And we'll get into that right after a quick word from our sponsor. July Sponsor: ConvertKit Sponsor this Newsletter Guess what? Sponsoring newsletters, like this one, is a great way to reach engaged and targeted audiences. It will build your brand — whether that is your personal brand or your business. The Decoders newsletter is part of the ConvertKit Sponsor Network. This network connects businesses to audiences of newsletter readers. For example, you can sponsor this newsletter and connect with 17,000 authors. ​Apply to Be a Sponsor ​ ​ Social Cage Fight You might have noticed that I had very little to say about Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter over the last year - and that's predominantly because I avoid political discussions like the plague. A privilege, perhaps, but one I unashamedly enjoy. However, with the launch of Meta's competing service Threads, and the continuing problems Twitter is facing, the topic has become unavoidable. Let's look at the issues Twitter is experiencing first, before examining why Threads seems to be having such a strong start. BTW I'm going to still avoid the topic of politics like the plague, and mostly personality politics too, which I also don't care for. Although that is a little more difficult when discussing Twitter, of course, given that Musk's… particular management style seems to have such an impact on the user experience and the site's general functioning. But just in case you're wondering, I don't particularly care for Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, or any of the tech billionaires. (I've met a few billionaires in the flesh and find them deeply weird FWIW.) I'm not on Team Anybody. I do care about the experience as a user, and I'm especially interested in how I can use any social network in a professional sense. For me, with my work hat on at least, that mostly that means: Is it an effective way to reach readers organically? Can I build a useful platform their to create/deepen reader engagement? What kind of advertising options do I have to reach potential new readers (or ensure existing ones receive important messages like new release announcements)? So that's the prism l'm going to look at Twitter through, for the most part, and Threads as well - to the extent that is possible at this extremely early stage. Twitter Storm Let's be clear about one thing: Twitter had plenty of problems before Musk showed any interest in purchasing "the global town square." From a bookselling perspective, chief among them was the frankly awful ad platform. In my experience, it was easily the worst performer out of any that I tried over the years; I'm sure anyone who has tried it will concur. The only relevant question about that aspect is whether it will improve under Musk's stewardship. I'm deeply skeptical because the early signs are very bad on that front. And Twitter's advertisers seem equally skeptical, given the reported drop in ad spend - which was before the latest technical mishaps at Twitter HQ. Although it's worth noting they might have different reasons. From brand safety concerns, PR considerations, politics, personality clashes, and then Musk's reported hardball tactics of not paying Twitter's bills in an attempt to renegotiate pre-existing contracts - even if the targets are big Twitter advertisers, like Amazon, for example. My concerns are (partly, somewhat) different. Simply put, the changes Musk has made to the platform, and the direction he has stated he wants to take it, give me little confidence it will become a better place to advertise. To be brutally honest, I'm not sure he understands digital advertising in the way he seems to grasp cars and rockets. YMMV. Putting on my specific content creator hat for a moment, which is an edgy Trilby if you're curious, none of the changes made to Twitter in the last year make me want to post more content to Twitter. Quite the opposite, in fact. As a user, in my personal opinion (again, YMMV) it is a less pleasant place to hang out. My feed is getting crammed with weird ads and all the political nonsense I desperately want to avoid. Also, the changes to verification just seem to have elevated a bunch of crypto bros and life coaches at the expense of more thoughtful and interesting voices. Most fundamentally, the site doesn't work so well anymore. I don't seem to be alone in experiencing problems logging in on desktop. I haven't been able to do so - like… at all, not even once - for weeks now. And because of Musk's bizarre recent decision to gatekeep the entire site behind a sign-in wall, I can't view anyone's tweets at all without pulling out my phone. Which means I post a lot less and view a lot less on Twitter overall. This decision by Musk was bizarre for a another reason - it betrays a complete lack of understanding of how Google and SEO works, which is worrying for someone running a site wholly dependant on traffic. Google will now see a whole swathe of links to Twitter as irrelevant and/or non-functional. Meaning Twitter loses a huge amount of Google juice that it took years to accumulate; I already see it slipping down the rankings, and research suggests this one decision already cost Twitter 30% of its indexed links on Google, which is absolutely crackers. All of this points to serious long-term issues for the viability of the platform, as well as obvious short term usability issues. In short, not a place where you want to build a platform right now, I respectfully suggest, or spend ad money, or perhaps even use yourself. Which makes the timing of the launch of Threads - by Facebook's owner Meta - so interesting. Threads Coming In Hot Even though Threads is launching from a cold start - and Facebook/Zuckerberg haven't exactly been media darlings over the last few years either - this isn't your typical upstart vs. an established player. In the last figures released, Twitter had approximately 260m daily active users - an all time high, as per Musk himself (Nov '22). But Meta owns four of the six most popular social networks - and Twitter isn't even one of the remaining two. Meta has a staggering daily active user count north of 3 billion people. For context, out of a global population of 8bn, around 4.6bn use one social network or another (defining that broadly here, including the likes of YouTube). 3bn of them log into a Meta product everyday - that's 65% of all social media users on the planet. Twitter has just over 5% of that same pie, for comparison. And when it comes to making money, Meta is a machine - raking in north of $100bn a year while Twitter can't generate enough profit to even service its debts - and revenue is falling further too. To give one final bit of context here, Threads reportedly gained 80m users in the last few days - even though it was a little slower to roll out across the EU. That's equivalent to almost a third of Twitter's users - built up over seventeen years - in just a matter of days. Tying Threads so closely to Instagram might have been annoying for some (like me personally, I wasn't on Insta), but clearly it was a smart play as it allowed Meta to jumpstart a social network in an unprecedented way. That doesn't mean it will be successful, or anything more than a flash in the pen, or useful for authors, or a good place to advertise books for that matter. But it does make it one to watch. Threads is new, and not fully baked yet. It's still missing key features, and Meta doesn't plan to monetize it immediately - reports suggest thy won't consider ads until they reach 1bn users (which would make it three times the size of Twitter, for comparison). But IF that happens and IF it isn't a train wreck, then this could become very interesting for authors indeed. Facebook Ads already allow you to seamlessly integrate your Instagram as well as your FB page, and you would assume Threads will become a similar option, allowing you to potentially reach huge number of readers on three distinct platforms with one single ad campaign. I like the sound of that (and don't think it's so fanciful). Which is why I've joined Threads myself to keep a closer eye on it. I've posted virtually nothing there yet and haven't decided what kind of content I will post there, but if you want to see the set-up I'm using to send this newsletter on the road, without a laptop, then you can follow me on Threads here. For balance, it's important to note that Twitter was always about much more than numbers. Because of the prevalence of journalists and celebrities - often speaking directly to their audience in an unvarnished manner - Twitter's cultural footprint was always much larger than the above numbers would suggest. Which is a rather dry way of saying there was something special about it. Musk's supporters might suggest he's restoring that. His detractors would likely say he's destroying that. We might find out soon who has called that correctly because the other unusual thing about Twitter is that it was largely driven by power users. Just 10% of Twitter users were responsible for 92% of all tweets in the USA. In other words, most Twitter users are consuming rather than creating. More recent data suggests those power users are posting significantly less on Twitter in 2023. Maybe they just can't log in… Dave P. S. Writing music this week The Cure with Catch. Broomfield Business Park, Malahide, Co. Dublin K36 AT04 ​Unsubscribe | Update your profile​