Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino Unveils Aggressive Strategy To Challenge Meta’s New Platform

Apart from gearing up for the ultimate battle with Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta Platforms Inc.’s (NASDAQ: META) new decentralized platform, Twitter’s CEO Linda Yaccarino has set her eyes on reshaping the destiny of the social media giant. 

Yaccarino reportedly aims to confront Zuckerberg’s soon-to-launch decentralized text-based social media platform head-on while introducing innovative strategies to win back advertisers.

Under Yaccarino’s leadership, Twitter plans to launch full-screen, sound-on video ads in its new short-video feed, offering a captivating advertising experience to users, reported Financial Times, citing three people familiar with the matter.  

Twitter is also testing a new ad format and recently introduced support for longer-form videos and a TikTok-style short-video feed.

The new CEO also intends to woo celebrities, political figures, and content creators to the platform, leveraging their high-profile presence to attract more advertising and facilitate brand deals. The platform intends to engage in proactive, personal outreach dubbed by Yaccarino as “hand-to-hand combat,” according to sources, the report noted.

A plan has reportedly been put in place to attract more advertising investments, following a significant drop in revenues after Musk’s takeover in October 2022, while also addressing prior criticisms of slow product innovation and weaker advertising offerings compared to competitors like Meta and ByteDance-owned TikTok.

Yaccarino is also expected to invest in rebuilding Twitter’s advertising, sales and partnership team—a condition she negotiated with Musk—aiming to address issues raised by advertisers after Musk’s takeover, which involved significant layoffs.

In addition, the new Twitter CEO has reportedly resumed payments to Google Cloud, which were halted under Musk’s cost-cutting measures, and is currently engaged in discussions for a potential broader partnership with Google, encompassing advertising and data access.

She also aims to renegotiate multiple contracts with tech giants like Amazon.com, Inc., Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) and IBM (NYSE:IBM), seeking to consolidate them into comprehensive partnerships.

Yaccarino has also expressed her intention to increase engagement with the press and is scheduled to conduct the same via Twitter Spaces in early August. It is pertinent to note that previously, after the layoff of most of Twitter’s communications team, Musk said that all inquiries to the company’s press email address will trigger a poop emoji autoreply.
 

[email protected] now auto responds with 💩

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 19, 2023

Yaccarino’s vision extends beyond advertising, as she aims to make commerce easier on Twitter by exploring the development of a digital wallet and enhancing the platform’s shopping and creator capabilities, the report stated.

Twitter is also exploring the potential of emerging generative AI technology for its ad business, following the footsteps of industry giants like Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google and Meta. 

While many brands have welcomed Yaccarino’s appointment, concerns persist regarding Musk’s interference and the presence of harmful content on the platform. Previously, in May this year, Musk stood by his tendency to post controversial tweets saying that “I’ll say what I want to say” even if it means losing potential Twitter advertisers. 

Naturally, the new Twitter CEO has her work cut out for her.

Produced in association with Benzinga

Edited by Jessi Rexroad Shull and Joseph Donald Gunderson