As social media evolves, companies are doubling down on dynamic content to capture users’ attention. Twitter, one of the world’s largest social media platforms, has recognized this trend by making video the centre of its new engagement strategy. Here’s How Twitter Will Push Video In Its Latest Strategy
Suzy Nicoletti, Twitter’s new Australian managing director, believes video could be the key to boosting the platform’s sputtering growth. Nicoletti, who previously served as the head of Twitter Australia’s online sales segment, recently said that live streaming would be a new audience and revenue focus for the social media platform.
Who Will Use Video?
The company already has streaming deals with professional sports league such as the National Football League (NFL) in America and more recently the Melbourne Cup horse race in Australia. Based on Nicoletti’s recent comments, Twitter will be expanding these efforts in the near future. “At this point we’re in a lot of discussions with different vendors across sport, media, news and entertainment,” Nicoletti said, as quoted by Mashable. “From an advertising perspective, we’re hoping to monetise those deals and we’re also looking to work with our global partners to help monetise some of the global live streams that will be available in the Australian market.”
Does Video Streaming Work?
Live streaming is a strategy that is paying off dividends for other social media platforms. However, measuring online video audience engagement has proven tricky, as Facebook demonstrated earlier this year by admitting that it inadvertently inflated video metrics. Twitter’s NFL livestreams have been well received, with US broadcaster NBC reporting an average audience of 327,000 for a September game between the Houston Texans and New England Patriots.
Nicolleti also indicated that the streaming service will expand outside of sports to include politics and other popular content. Twitter livestreamed a presidential debate with Bloomberg in September, capitalizing on one of the year’s biggest stories.
Conclusion
Twitter’s focus on video aligns with CEO Jack Dorsey’s vision of rebranding the platform as the “people’s news network.”
“Twitter is what’s happening, and what everyone is talking about (literally!). News and talk. We’re the people’s news network,” Dorsey said in a memo that was originally published by Bloomberg in October.
He added, “So let’s show them what we’re made of and deliver a better Twitter faster than they thought possible. We can do this every day. We can do this!”
Twitter’s push toward video comes at a time when other social media giants are also looking to monetize this segment of the market. Facebook Live is ramping up capacity, while YouTube remains the undisputed king of all things video.
As the push for dynamic content continues, it’ll be interesting to see if Twitter can finally emerge from its slow-growth conundrum. Unlike Facebook, the platform has struggled to grow its daily active users, which has limited its growth potential.
What do you think of Twitter video? Tweet me @Charli_Says