Twitter has 450 million users monthly all over the globe.
Founded in 2006, Twitter is one of the original social media channels that still exist today. Twitter had a branding edge over the other channels, because it was able to create it's own verb "tweeting" which seamlessly correlated with the blue bird logo.
Fast forward 15 years and a "culture" is created, Twitter is beloved by journalists, fashionistas, bloggers of all ages and cultures. The rules are simple ... keep the tweets short, and play nice.
In 2022 Elon Musk enters Twitterland and creates "rules" based on his mood, rather than the feedback of millions of users. It's to be expected that some changes would occur when a company is taken over, but "killing" a massively successful brand is unprecedented.
There are so many ways this could have been done differently.
Rebranding Option 1"The Switch"
Create a small company with the X logo, the X will serve as an alternative to Twitter with the differences being ______. Grow X over time as you try to convert existing Twitter users to X users.
Rebranding Option 2 "The Countdown"
Announcement: "In 2024+ Twitter will become X. We have exciting things in store that we'll be sharing with you before the big day."
This isn't a simple logo change, we're talking about a fundamental rebranding of image, mission, rules etc. Many people around the world depend on Twitter for their businesses, organizations, or personal use. This drastic overhaul is not only a way to lose loyal followers, it can also hurt many people too.
The irony is that the name X is trademarked by Microsoft and Meta, also not a stranger to copyright infringement. Folks really? All those billions and you can't think of an original name?
Just when the world was looking forward to the hilarious ringside tweeting when Elon goes into the cage with Mark Zuckerberg, Elon kills twitter.
