Rohan Gupta Twitter Case 4th Dec, 2018

1. How Twitter should attract more users

Twitter has a churn rate of 25%, the highest amongst its competitors. Therefore, we suggest two

ways to improve its customer retention strategy.​ (i) ​Simplify the User Experience – ​Twitter’s

biggest obstacle in retaining customers was due to the meager features that weren’t intuitive to

new customers. Explaining features and providing tutorials to new users would improve the

overall experience of using the app. This would require investment in R&D to better understand

customer preferences and create tutorials for the app. ​(ii) ​Focus on the quality of information –

The article talks about Twitter being more of an information network rather than a social media

network. In 2016, information networks were flooded with Fake News and even though

Facebook was able to combat the issue, Twitter still had 4-6 million tweets with fake news every

month.1 Especially with sponsored content, Twitter needs to make sure that it maintains the level

of quality and authenticity that is required for an information network.

2. How Twitter can get more revenue from current users

Twitter can garner more revenue from current users in 2 ways:​ (i)​ ​Implementing the company’s

ad lock vision​- According to the case, in mid-2015, Twitter’s investor relations team noted that

“ad load in Q2 (2015) was approximately one-third of what we see as the long-term potential”.

Twitter should act on this insight immediately by encouraging more advertisers to promote

goods and services on accounts owned by its current users, as advertisements could easily be

included in tweets or alongside other content. One way the company can incentivize advertisers

to choose Twitter is by providing them with accurate data to target specific audiences. However,

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https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/15/17862198/facebook-fake-news-study-twitter-stanford-nyu
Rohan Gupta Twitter Case 4th Dec, 2018

the company should act with caution, as the oversaturation of advertisements on social media

platforms could lead to dissatisfaction amongst users.​ (ii) ​Selling data – Another way Twitter can

derive more revenue from current users is by selling data to advertisers. According to exhibit 3

of the case, within a tweet, Twitter can get data on the name and hometown of the person

tweeting, type of device used to tweet, and date and time of the tweet. By improving its data

collection methods to include what the interests of its users are, Twitter can attract more

advertisers, which would translate to more revenue. However, the company should be aware of

risks, including lawsuits, associated with collecting sensitive consumer data, and thus, should

avoid dishonest practices.

3. How Twitter can win over non-users

According to the case, Twitter has around 500 million non-users (people who visited Twitter

every month but who did not have an account). There are 2 ways in which Twitter can attract

non-users to sign up:​ (i)​ Continuous Promotion – Twitter should continuously promote its

platform and make it easier for non-users to sign up on the platform. One way the company can

achieve that is by promoting the benefits garnered from signing up on Twitter, including “it’s

live news, entertainment, sports, and chat”. Furthermore, the company should target non-users

and continuously send them links that they could use to sign up for the platform. However, in

pursuing this type of aggressive marketing strategy, the company should realize that there is a

risk of alienating groups who do not like to be bothered with continuous ads. ​(ii)​ ​Restricting

access​ – As it currently stands, non-users can read any posts by users without having to sign up.

Twitter can encourage non-users to sign up by limiting access to the number of tweets non-users

can read on the platform. This could potentially drive non-users, such as myself, who are
Rohan Gupta Twitter Case 4th Dec, 2018

interested in reading posts from various influencers to sign up and use the platform. Although

this can potentially attract non-users, such as myself, the company should realize that it could

potentially alienate non-users with lower affinity to the platform.