Calm down. I don't plan to bash Elon Musk. I'm not overly impressed with him and I think he just might be another rich person who doesn't know how to stay in their lane. It's funny when you hear a pro athlete get vocal about a social issue, they are told to shut up and play ball. Now the shoe is on a different foot. Mr. Musk needs to be quiet and fix Twitter.
When he bought the platform, I was instantly worried. In the end, I figured that he was a successful businessman and he should be able to make it work. The opposite has happened. Since his involvement, Twitter has lost users, advertisers, and money. He recently blasted advertisers for what he called holding the platform hostage for ad money. Not to mention he fired us all up with rebranding it to X, a move I still cannot settle with.
To be fair, I am no social media expert and I have no idea how to right the ship. I am the "Joe Six Pack" of this universe and my personal experience is what really counts to me. I joined Twitter in 2012 at the urging of my then-superintendent, Greg Goins. I wasn't really excited about this. I was a Facebook guy and that was plenty to keep up with. I could see myself creating an account and never scrolling through it. However, Dr. Goins was on to something. This space was a great place to network with other school administrators. I enjoyed it and really took my account seriously.
I'm no influencer, but I had a decent engagement to Tweets and I could count on some kind of response to anything I tweeted. Again, I was staying in my school admin lane but I did branch out and gained more followers and started following more influential people. I really liked this momentum and I began creating blog content and Tweeting it. I was on cruise control for several years.
When Elon Musk took over I began to call it the era of the blue check. Almost immediately this little icon no longer symbolized a verified identity. It signified a subscription. This is when my Twitter activity began to slow down. I don't pay for my little blue check mark, but my Twitter behavior has not changed. I Tweet the same types of things, hashtag, and tag people just like always. Overnight I saw my small amount of engagement shrink to nearly nothing. The growth of my professional network began to slow also.
In an effort to enjoy Twitter again, I began following sports card collectors to help nurture a hobby of mine. Still yet, the connections do not feel organic, they feel driven by the check marks of many colors. In fact, I am now being solicited more than ever to pay to play. This was waiting on my feed for me just yesterday. I can pay for reply prioritization. Seems like the content should drive the platform and not paid prioritization, but hey I'm just a Joe Six Pack.
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