Tag: twitter

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Social Media

Elon’s Twitter

Ok, I know it’s been a while – a lot has been going on, however – I knew for a fact, that you’d be thinking, hope Bal writes something about Elon buying Twitter! And yes, here it is… a quick blog post about Elon and Twitter.

For those who don’t know what Twitter is – Twitter is an American microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as “tweets”. Registered users can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read those that are publicly available.

Twitter Is Making Its Platform Safer With This New Feature

There’s millions, if not billions of people who use Twitter. And if you’re on there and not following me… I am @balbansal

Now, to the story in hand. Elon, who we all know from SpaceX, Tesla, etc… has gone and bought it for a cool $44bn.

Elon Musk's Twitter profile displayed on a computer screen and Twitter logo displayed on a phone screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on April 9, 2022.

Elon (who is worth $273bn) said…

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,”.

“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans,” he added.

“Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

The move comes as Twitter faces growing pressure from politicians and regulators over the content that appears on its platform. It has drawn critics from left and right over its efforts to mediate misinformation on the platform.

In one of its most high-profile moves, last year it banned former US President Donald Trump, perhaps its most powerful user, citing the risk of “incitement of violence” – remember that?

At the time Mr Musk observed: “A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech.”

So there you go… Elon has bought Twitter, will enable a number of changes and as he loves ‘free speech’, it will be very interesting to see how the platform develops. Obviously he’ll be looking for a return on his investment but moreso… what is interesting is, he’d promised the World Health Organization, that if that could show a detailed plan on how to solve world hunger, he’d donate $6bn to the cause… they showed him the plan, but I’ve not heard about the $6bn being donated. Maybe he’ll tweet it soon….

So, what features do you think he should introduce first?

Categories
Week in Review

Week 12… 2021!

Nearly Easter… Nearly April! – Where is the time going?! Well… still a lot happening, everything from ‘apparently’ the shortage of toilet roll because of Evergreen’s vessel that is stuck in the Suez Canal! With something like 327 vessels held up (on both sides) we sure can expect some delays on some supplies.

Saying the above – please, do not… go out and stock up on toilet roll. I’m sure we have enough supply.

Ok, my top 2 stories of the week (and there were plenty to chose from!)

  1. As many of you know, I’m on Twitter (@balbansal). Whilst I tweet about all sorts – it’s mainly about Nottingham Forest, Technology, Lean Thinking and Innovation, etc… Oh, and you can expect to see photo’s of lunch at my mums. But did you know, Jack (the founder of Twitter) sold his first every tweet for a cool $2.9m!

Crazy right! 2.9 million dollars! It went to a Malaysia-based businessman. If you’re wondering what it was, it was ‘just setting up my twttr’. If you’re interested in buying any of my tweets – please do reach out to me.

2. Now last week, I shared a story about the new Apple Car. Well, this week, our friend Elon Musk said… that you can buy a Tesla using Bitcoin!

In the US, orders for new Tesla cars can now be secured with the equivalent of a $100 deposit in Bitcoin.

The facility would be rolled out to other countries in the coming months, Mr Musk said.

But Bitcoin’s value rapidly moves up and down – meaning the cryptocurrency price of the car could change day to day.

Tesla has invested heavily in the digital currency, buying $1.5bn (£1.1bn) worth of Bitcoin.

So there you go… my top two stories of the week, and for those wondering… Bal – can I buy your tweets using Bitcoin?…. my answer is, not just yet… I’m definitely forward thinking, just not as much as Elon Musk… or shall I say, I’ve personally not invested so much in Bitcoin. Yet.

Categories
Tech Tuesday

Tech Tuesday!

So recently, on my Instagram – I shared how I was annoyed about a post that AutoTrader had put up from their Twitter Acount.

AutoTrader – the UK’s largest automotive marketplace. I bought my recent car via AutoTrader! It used to sell it in paper form.. then with the introduction of the internet, it moved online… (app is available via App Store etc…), and promotes itself via social media.

62,000 followers on Twitter (Joined January 2009).

57,000 followers on Instagram (with over 2,211 posts).

359,000 followers on Facebook.

On the social media channels – they review cars, provide advice, etc..

So Bal, what’s your problem with them?

Well… they posted the below on Twitter…

Whilst I love the idea of a poll and seeing which car is better…. my annoyance was around the way to respond.

Firstly… I see the heart. So if I’m an Audi fan, then fine – I click the heart. BUT… if I’m a BMW fan… where’s the thumbs up? – do this mean I have to go into the comments and do a thumbs up? So… all of a sudden, I need to interact with the post, I need to comment, I need to make my vote count… IF I’m a BMW fan.

Facebook is the social media platform that has a ‘thumb’ for liking an image.

Now… this was shared by AutoTrader… but via a platform called Socialbakers. Basically, you can schedule posts and articles – and then platforms such as Socialbakers will publish them out at times when activity is at it’s peak…. allowing more people to view and engage.

It comes down to user experience.

In this day and age – when I can, click twice in amazon and have an item sent to my house, the experience for engagement should be quick, easy and simple!

So, whatever you do… wherever you do it… just think of who’s going to interact with it. Who’s going to do something with it! It’s the value someone will get out of it. There’s so much competition for eyes to be on your post – let’s be honest, firstly, there’s so many social media platforms. Then there’s so many posts… information, etc… how can you cut above everyone and have eyes on your post? – I won’t go into making good content… but key thing is ensuring it’s simple to read, simple to engage with… and simple to react to!

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Uncategorized

Politicians and Twitter…

If you’re on Twitter – which I hope you are, you’re probably following a number of celebs, VIP’s and politicians.

I am. I follow a few – but then, there’s times when I get confused – because of their tweets, and think, is it really them or is it a parody account (of which many exist!)

The above is from the ‘real’ but you could easily think it was a parody!

It’s worrying times. Twitter lets you go crazy – well, kind of. Depends on who you are. But times are changing. They’ve come out saying that Politicians aren’t above the rules.

Yesterday, Twitter put out a blog post in an attempt to clarify that world leaders, like President Donald Trump, are not above its rules — at least not “entirely.”

In Tuesday’s blog post, Twitter said that “Presently, direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on political issues of the day, or foreign policy saber-rattling on economic or military issues are generally not in violation of the Twitter Rules.”

If a tweet does break the platform rules, Twitter can remove it. If it thinks it’s of public interest, the company can block it out with a grey box that users have to click through in order to see the content.

Will this really help? – I’m not so sure… but it’s a step in the right direction. Everyone should be treated equally, and if you’re promoting a particular bad thing – then you should be treated with the same rules as if you were head of a state/country or just the average Joe. Some would argue, you should be treated more harsher because of the impact you could have depending on the number of followers you have.

Social Media as a whole – is a huge platform for people to easily get their message across. The message could be of hate, however – the platform has to carry out it’s due diligence and make sure that it’s not breaking rules. And that’s where the likes of Twitter are coming from.

Image result for twitter