- Elon Musk met publicly with advertisers on Wednesday, and experts say it pointed to issues at Twitter.
- Multiple social media experts told Insider the meeting showed flaws in his leadership at Twitter.
Elon Musk met publicly with users and advertisers on Wednesday to reassure them about his plans for Twitter, but experts say it likely had the opposite intended effect.
Eight social media experts told Insider the meeting did little to assuage advertisers' concerns for the company and instead served to highlight flaws in Musk's leadership thus far at Twitter.
"He really kind of blew it," social media expert Matt Navarra told Insider. "I suppose it could have gone worse, but it also could have gone a lot better. There really was little that was said to appease advertisers and show Musk is taking moderation seriously and you have to remember these companies could easily turn to more popular apps like TikTok."
Advertisers account for about 90% of Twitter's revenue. Already, several advertisers have chosen to boycott the platform in response to the havoc wreaked by Musk since his take over two weeks ago — from a surge in hate speech to features that were rolled out only to be discarded within hours.
Meanwhile, internally staffers are reeling since Musk axed half of Twitter's workforce and multiple executives resigned. As the company attempts to weather the turmoil, Musk warned on Thursday the platform could lose billions next year and bankruptcy would not be out of the question.
Musk's leadership style is 'not translating to Twitter'
Musk runs five companies and has essentially built Tesla and SpaceX from the ground up, but experts warn Twitter is an entirely different animal.
"His experience with his other companies is not translating to Twitter," said Angelo Carusone, president of the watchdog organization Media Matters for America. "At Tesla and SpaceX he's worked with a static product. Twitter is a dynamic organism. It's not a machine you can tinker with, it's a product made up of people."
At any other company it would be easier to focus on boosting profits by improving the product, but social media expert Neal Schaffer says Twitter has secondary concerns as well.
"He doesn't seem to understand the needs of a social media company," Schaffer said, noting Musk appeared to dismiss concerns related to brand safety on Wednesday. "Hate speech and moderation aren't a big priority for him unless it impacts the bottom line."
Schaffer added that Musk might have to change his management style at Twitter.
"In the past he seems to have operated as some kind of authoritarian one man show," Schaffer said. "Social media inherently requires diversity in managing the needs of the company, listening to the needs of users and advertisers."
'Dumb decisions' ahead
On Wednesday, Musk promised he will move fast and try many features that might fail.
"Twitter will do lots of dumb things in the coming months," he tweeted earlier this week.
Musk has long been known for pushing lofty production goals and moving at a breakneck pace, but multiple experts said that mentality is unlikely to benefit a platform with over 400 million users.
"It creates a very unsettled and chaotic environment, especially with the amount of firefighting we've already seen," Navarra said. "It's not a healthy way to operate if you want to add users and advertisers."
Carusone said the billionaire would be better off testing out new features with samplings of users instead of rolling them out across the entire userbase — a process Twitter has used in the past.
"He's using a hammer right now when he should be using a screw driver," Carusone said.
One example of how Musk has rolled out new features with seemingly little testing is his new verification fee. The Twitter CEO rolled out the $7.99 feature this week and accounts began using the blue check mark to parody public figures.
Don't underestimate Musk
Despite Musk's chaotic week, there have been signs that his original plans for the company are beginning to take shape. He even pointed out on Twitter Friday that he has repeatedly overcome massive doubt in the past.
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2022
"We should keep in mind Elon only got keys to Twitter last Friday," said Luke Lintz, CEO of marketing company High Key Enterprises. "Even though Elon has never run a social media platform before, he has run three extremely successful companies in three completely different industries."