Tweeting is the new way of expressing what you feel in today’s time. Twitter started as a social media platform wherein you can take up to 280 characters and post your content. Today, this platform is owned by Elon Musk that was started by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006.
Like any other business, Twitter has some strengths and some weaknesses. Moreover, the company can work on specific opportunities and prevent itself from some threats too!
A Twitter SWOT analysis from us would look at a detailed approach to the power of 280 characters that this platform provides.
You might also want to read: How Twitter Makes Money: Simply Explained
Twitter SWOT Analysis: Let’s Catch The Bird!
SWOT is a great and simplified business tool that can help us understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of any organization.
If you want to understand SWOT as a business tool and why it is important in any business, I recommend you to check our article here!
Let us begin!
Strengths Of Twitter
Strong Brand Value
The Twitter bird is flying high since its inception. Twitter as a brand is strong, robust, and quite powerful in the social media space. The primary reason has been the innovation they provide in features such as tweets and engagement. It is a common practice to use the slang, “let’s tweet” instead of using old generic terms like posting or uploading.
Apart from this, the Twitter bird logo has helped create an image that is recognizable anywhere on the internet. The company has been successful in offering a unique way to connect and engage with people.
Quite Influential
Twitter as a platform is not limited to connecting with people and posting through tweets. The real power Twitter provides is the power of change! People often use social media platforms to raise their voices against something they oppose or to express their opinions. For such scenarios, Twitter has been instrumental for all people. The platform is used to tweet against any political movement, social cause, positive news spreading, and much more.
It is common to see millions of tweets on a single topic on Twitter. This helps to create a buzz and engage millions of users together. Hence, the platform becomes a remarkable place to share views for awareness.
Has A Strong Network Of Influencers
The other strength of Twitter is the massive amount of famous influencers and personalities from all domains. You will find people from all industries under one platform. This creates Twitter as a place to log in and spend some time on.
Most famous personalities join Twitter first in their journey of social media platforms. Twitter has become a platform where every established personality can “Tweet” and interact with their followers.
Popular For News, Marketing, And Micro-Blogging
Twitter started with the concept of micro-blogging. No other platform had this concept that reached the masses. Moreover, Twitter is quite famous for the circulation of news and promotional material. Most quick updates regarding any negative or positive incident are conveyed through a tweet.
Not only the news channels but also the leaders across the globe convey their message through this platform. You will find the Prime Ministers and Presidents of all countries available on Twitter. It is sort of an unofficial official platform for communication!
Innovative Features - Hashtags and ReTweets!
Twitter’s biggest innovation was to introduce the feature of hashtags to the world. I am assuming you already know what a hashtag is. It is simply a keyword under which you can label your content or your tweet. The hashtags were first introduced by Twitter and then later enabled by other social media platforms too. Now, you can find hashtags on almost every social media platform. Hashtags create a great way to segregate the content for better reach.
The other feature was to repost what the other user tweets or posts. Now, this feature is like sharing what others are posting. But, Twitter marketed it under the term “retweet”. This made it different from simply sharing like other social media platforms. So, the concept remained the same, but the marketing and implementation were way too creative.
Diverse Product Portfolio
Twitter has a great portfolio of products and companies it acquired as of now. Here are some of the top ones for you!
- Magic Pony – machine learning
- Gnip – API aggregation
- MoPub – mobile advertising
- Lightwell – conversation initiatives
- TellApart – advertisement
- TweetDeck – dashboard application
- TapCommerce – targeted advertisement
These acquisitions allow Twitter to enter into different industries and expand its revenue sources.
Weaknesses Of Twitter
Fack And Inactive User Profiles
You can easily see a lot of fake profiles on the Twitter platform. Twitter is trying to tackle this with great measures. However, you can still see a lot of fake profiles logging in and using the platform on a daily basis. Twitter needs to put stronger measures in the process of creating Twitter profiles.
These fake accounts may be harmless in some situations. However, most of the accounts are tweeting and messaging people with the intention of spam. This creates havoc for genuine profiles to a large extent.
Major Users Are Limited To The US
Twitter is a globally available platform. You can create a profile and almost every country supports this platform to run. However, despite being a global social media platform, the majority of the users are still confined to the US.
Here is a split of the top 4 countries for Twitter users
- United States: 77.75 million active users
- Japan: 58.2 million active users
- India: 24.45 million active users
- Brazil: 19.05 million active users
- United Kingdom: 19.05 million active users
You can clearly see the huge margin in the active users in the US compared to other countries.
Data Safety Concerns
In the era and times of social media platforms, data is the new currency. This currency can be put to good use or sometimes even worse! There have been cases in which Twitter has reported data breaches of its users. This clearly weakens the entire brand value of Twitter amongst its users.
The most recent data leak was in January 2023 where about 59GB of data was leaked from the Twitter database. The leak is estimated to be of around 200 million active users.
Lack Of Editing Features In Your Tweet
As a user, we can make mistakes while posting something. When you tweet using Twitter, there is no option for you to edit your tweet or modify it. The only way to correct the error is to either put the correction in the comment or delete the tweet and post again.
Now, this may not be a big deal for many. However, it becomes a little problematic for many users. In cases of news channels, this feature can actually hamper the quality of the news if any incorrect data has been posted.
Opportunities For Twitter
Introduce Online Marketplace
If you observe the revenue streams of Facebook, you will see the Facebook marketplace to be one of its primary income sources. Twitter can try something similar! Most brands and companies are already promoting their content on Twitter using advertisements and sponsored content. Twitter can take advantage of this.
Twitter can explore an online marketplace wherein brands and companies can directly engage with potential customers for the selling of their products. The brands get access to millions of users in different countries. And Twitter gets a percentage of each sale made.
In-House Video Streaming
Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms have a separate section for users to explore video content. Twitter can introduce something along similar lines. The short video content or simply known as reels is quite in demand. Most users love content that is short to grasp and engage with.
Twitter can try and experiment with creating an in-house streaming video section on its platform. Users would love to explore content in an engaging video format. Moreover, influencers who are already reaching the masses on other social media platforms would love to post content here as well.
Algorithms To Detect Sensitive Information
As Twitter is a popular platform for sharing news and live updates, it is necessary to circulate such content in moderation. Twitter needs to have an algorithm and process to identify such tweets and verify their authenticity. Only after the news is authorized and verified, other users should be able to retweet or share it on other platforms.
Twitter already has seen a lot of fake news peddling especially during sensitive times of COVID. This is a crucial but necessary step that Twitter can take to ensure only authentic information is shared.
Threats For Twitter
Stiff Competition
There are many other social media platforms that are providing what Twitter is providing. Moreover, the other platforms also provide additional features and customizations that can be beneficial for many users. Platforms like Instagram or Facebook may not be direct competitors but people still use them to post their content.
Twitter faces stiff competition and it impacts the user base of Twitter. Moreover, many people do prefer segregated video content that Twitter currently does not offer.
Unequal Influential Powers
Most users on Twitter are not famous or influential. This is the same with other platforms too. However, as Twitter is occupied and focused more on influential people, the power resides with them. More than 80% of the tweets come from only 10% of the user base. This 10% user base is usually famous personalities of different domains. Adding to all this, the Twitter algorithm does favor these accounts compared to others.
Influencers Leave And The User Base Leaves Too
Most People are on Twitter only because they follow someone they like. These users are actually driven not only by the platform but by the personality they follow. In some cases, when a particular personality leaves the platform, their user base migrates too.
It is very tough to retain the user base in such situations.
Freedom Of Speech Issues In Some Countries
Twitter is a platform that lets you speak what you think. It has no restrictions unless you are offending someone as per the policies. It is a great platform to express your views on any matter you feel for. All this is not supported or favored by countries with dictatorships or authoritarian governments.
For example, China has blocked Twitter and also detains or fined people who try to use Twitter in any capacity.
Some Frequently Asked Questions
As of 2023, there are around 450 million monthly active users.
There is a website called Have I Been Pawned. You can visit the site and enter your email address to check. This website adds all data sets that were leaked to help you check if your data was also leaked.
Around 48% of the users consume news content on Twitter
As of 2023, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have banned Twitter.
Bottom Line
In conclusion, Twitter’s SWOT analysis sheds light on the platform’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Twitter boasts a strong brand value and an influential presence in the social media space, allowing users to engage and raise their voices on various topics. The platform’s network of influencers and its innovative features, such as hashtags and retweets, further enhance its appeal. However, Twitter faces challenges in combating fake and inactive user profiles, expanding its user base beyond the US, and addressing data safety concerns. Nevertheless, there are ample opportunities for Twitter to explore, such as introducing an online marketplace and in-house video streaming, while implementing algorithms to detect sensitive information. It also needs to navigate the stiff competition posed by other social media platforms and address concerns regarding the unequal distribution of influential powers. Additionally, Twitter must navigate freedom of speech issues in certain countries. By leveraging its strengths, addressing weaknesses, seizing opportunities, and mitigating threats, Twitter can continue to thrive and maintain its position as a prominent social media platform in the ever-evolving digital landscape.