Typically, Business leaders think that Twitter is not a preferred social media channel and that is not a good platform to include in a Digital Acceleration initiative. They often argue that it is related to the quality of the interaction due to bullies, trolls, bots, you name it.
I understand that.
But this week’s news about one individual buying the whole company is something – I think- we can’t miss analyzing.
Suppose the end goal of Digital Transformation is to interact in real-time with an extended ecosystem comprised of Customers and partners. In that case, there is no social media channel with a faster response time than Twitter.
The critical questions are: What agenda does Mr. Musk have for the future of Twitter? What possibilities will be opened for exploring real-time interaction with customers and partners?
Would it make sense to include Twitter in any Digital Acceleration initiative?
Will regulators approve the Twitter deal?
I am not the most qualified person to talk about this issue.
Mr. Musk is a free-speech and transparency advocate on one side of the story.
On the other side, any time that power is concentrated in a few economic or political players, there is an opportunity of abusing the system.
Legislators will take many months to decide if they approve the deal.
I instead want to talk about the business implications of the deal being approved and Mr. Musk being successful with his vision.
How the Twitter acquisition by Musk may affect the Digital Acceleration Landscape
This is my interpretation of a possible optimistic scenario based on my exposure to Twitter in the early days.
To answer this, I would like to tell you a personal story.
It was 2009-2010, and at that time, most mobile providers in the US offered 3G networks (and 2G in certain areas, especially on the South Border).
There were no internet services at an affordable price for laptops, and mobile devices provided limited graphic capabilities for mobile apps.
Google maps were launched in 2005, but the Android and IOS version was launched in September 2008.
And the story was?
I gave a speech about process automation and paperless office to an audience, “Deep in the Heart of Texas.”
The presentation included a “dreaming together” exercise, where we asked our customer to share their business needs, business drivers, and what keep them awake at night.
A customer shared with the audience the following story:
“I am the CEO of a transportation and logistics company. We connect customers with a network of independent contractors.
Typically, Customers need to transport Consumer-Packaged-Good through the US-South Border, and we do all communications with the independent contractor via Twitter.”
“Please tell me more about your communications,” I asked.
“We reverse auction the work orders, get a digital record of all work orders, create a unique ID for any work order, and ask for any ID status via Twitter.”
“Please, I want to know more,” I asked.
“Our business is so dispersed that we can’t have physical support for all transactions (a piece of paper, signed and sealed). Everything must be digital, and Twitter is the only technology we have found capable of supporting us in these extreme conditions.
Even though people think Twitter is like the wild west, it covers our needs. It is not perfect, but we have been using this business model for some time.”
Today, more than ten years later, Twitter has become a centerpiece of significant social and political battles, and there is constant pressure to create fake information via bots.
If Twitter can clean up the space, it will play a critical role in building communities where companies interact with customers and partners in real-time, as in the past, but with new technology components to enable digital transformation use cases.
Subject to the regulator approving the deal, imagine a scenario where small and medium businesses; and big organizations will use Twitter in a multi-channel strategy, with secure communications: IDs authenticated and noise from bots filtered.
Potential benefits of an improved Twitter based on Mr. Musk’s statement of direction.
Twitter as a way to have real-time interaction with customers
Imagine a business announces a new product or value proposition through Twitter, where hundreds of customers are capable of responding. Not everything about this is perfect; there are a few beneficial and risky scenarios to think of:
- Imagine a scenario where people reacted favorably to a value proposition, and became viral. Free advertising, fast monetization.
- Imagine a scenario where you make a mistake that becomes viral: free lousy publicity. Huge losses.
See, real-time data comes with high volatility. Being ready to process information and react fast to new events is critical.
You must also have an effective way to deliver business changes fast and safely (error-free).
Ok, Jose, Application testing, testing, testing.
Yeap, 😊
Moving along, another example
Imagine that you succeed in your Digitalization effort. What would be the impact on Analytics? A couple of thoughts.
Twitter and its impact on Analytics
- Many of the current Analytical tools (solutions and services) are not prepared to process and provide recommended actions to millions of interactions via Twitter. Vast opportunities will arise for solutions providers and trusted advisors.
- These analytics will require significant computing power, so many business leaders will explore building these analytical solutions in the cloud using a scalable platform (scale-up and scale-out)
Twitter and the impact on AI, ML?
Many other Digital Transformation components will require essential adjustments. (IoT, Wireless Networks, Analytics, AI, ML, ubiquitous delivery models, cybersecurity)
Some will be upgraded, and others will be used in new use cases, such as AI and ML.
How does Artificial Intelligence fit in this?
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, playing together, provide excellent results in detecting trigger events.
- Some organizations would like to use AI and ML to detect positive outcomes of new business offerings to customers.
- Some organizations would like to use AI and ML to see the adverse effects of news published on any social media channel.
- Some organizations would like to identify the same use cases in their competitor’s social media channels.
Are there some things you do not feel confident about regarding Twitter proposed agenda by Mr. Musk?
Yes, It is unclear how the advertisers will react to the proposed Twitter agenda.
Any unexplored scenarios?
Yes, Musk is a lover and advocate of payment systems and blockchain.
It is too early to visualize a hidden or potential use case based on these technology components.
Jose, back to the testing comment you made, any additional comments?
I think you know that I believe in continuous improvements / continuous delivery culture.
These use-cases, and any other use-cases that allow a company to interact with customers and partners in real-time, will benefit significantly from a strong application quality management strategy and platform.
Validating application changes related to technical and functional changes or checking application integrity via automatic regression testing. This is critical to ensure that any application will deliver what it was designed to do (unequivocally).
A final comment
This story is just starting, and it makes sense to keep an eye on current and future events.
Good enough?
Today we reviewed a fascinating topic: how an updated technology component can open the door to new use-cases to drive real-time interaction between businesses, customers, and partners.
As you may realize, today, we have more questions than answers.
This forum aims to facilitate business leaders resonating ideas with peers: I want to invite you to share your opinion with the audience.
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Cheers,