Twitter 2.0 & Elon's New Checkmarks

Fuzz Martin 0:00

Howdy, podcasters! Today we're talking about Twitter 2.0 & Elon's new checkmarks. Thanks for tuning into Good Morning, Podcasters. I'm your host Fuzz Martin and just about each day, we talk about marketing, advertising, PR and social media topics as they relate to the world of podcasting. I say just about because I'm finding out running a daily podcast is a grind. And I also run a business. For instance, I did not get the chance to release Thursday's episode on hyper local podcasting, because on Wednesday night, I was at a hyperlocal charity event that EPIC had sponsored and I didn't have enough time in the day to get it into a place that didn't sound like I was rushing it. So we'll save that episode for next week. Quality over quantity.

Fuzz Martin 0:59

Today, however, in this the 17th episode of Good morning, podcasters 2.0. We're going to talk about Twitter 2.0 as they're calling it, and their new check marks program. Now, just as a note, I'm recording this episode the night before it airs. Obviously it's not live. Elon Musk mentioned on Friday, November 25, that the new Twitter Blue would be ready to release on Friday, December 2, or at least tentatively, there's a chance that he's tweeted in between when I'm recording this and when it's published, that something has changed. So if that happens, I will update this episode. So here we go. Let's talk about Twitter 2.0. And a post on Twitter's blog on Thursday called Twitter 2.0. Our continued commitment to the public conversation on Twitter reemphasize its mission of promoting and protecting in this as a quote promoting and protecting the public conversation. And being the town square of the internet. They laid out some assurances for Twitter users. They said that their policies haven't changed and that they're going to rely more heavily on deamplification of content that is problematic. Instead of removing users, they said, quote, freedom of speech, not freedom of reach, which to me is if you're reducing rage, isn't that the same as their whole freedom of speech point? Like is it okay to say people who have this thought aren't going to get the reach? But people who have this thought are versus we're going to remove people who think this way? And not people who think that way? Is there any difference between removing people and reducing their reach to nothing. They said their trust and safety team is continuing to keep the platform's safe from hateful content, abusive behavior and violation of any Twitter rules. They reassured us that the team remains strong and well resourced, and that they're using automatic detection. They said they will ensure that content moderators will have guidance to find and address violative content when urgent events manifest in the platform. They said they will improve their policies and processes to adapt and identify and defuse threats against saying that they're going to reduce impressions of violative content. And they said they're gonna make mistakes and learn from them.

Fuzz Martin 3:27

One of the other big things they spoke about in the article was that they are now embracing public testing. And they believe that just putting new stuff out in the open helps them move faster, and gather feedback in real time. And finally, and this is a direct quote, we remain committed to providing a safe, inclusive, entertaining and informative experience for everyone. We will continue to be transparent as we move through this transition period. And we will listen to you the people who make Twitter whether it is that town square of the internet.

Fuzz Martin 3:58

I'll link to that full blog post in the show notes. I have to say, while I know there's a ton of people up in arms, and I have been one of them, especially as a person whose agency has clients that spend money on the platform. And brand safety is a real thing whether you believe it or not. I do like this approach. I do not like a CEO, however, that picks fights with advertisers on social media. Imagine you're Tim Cook, and you're getting bullied on Twitter because you're not spending enough money. It's pedantic. It's entitled, and it's detrimental to both Apple and Twitter. That said, according to Musk's tweets, at least it looks like the new Twitter and the old Apple have made up, but we'll see what happens. And again, it's hard to want to spend clients money on Twitter when the CEO is being an instigator. Anyway, as I said before, we'll see how this plays out. I'm warming up to the changes but I'm not there yet.

Fuzz Martin 4:53

So now let's talk about their new verification standards. They're supposed to be coming out today as this episode airs. Per Musk's tweet on Friday, though he did hedge with the word sensitive. According to musk, the new verification program will have three different styles will say there will be gold checkmarks for companies, great check marks for government and blue checkmarks for individuals, whether or not you're a celebrity, all accounts will be manually authenticated before the check activates. And according to their website, users will have to be signed up for Twitter for at least 90 days before it's available to be verified. That said a lot of bad actors and a bunch of bot accounts have been created a long time ago and are just sitting around collecting dust waiting to be activated. So I'm sure spinning up these accounts that are 90 plus days old won't take much for those who would like to do harm. But that's me being a cynic. So will I get a checkmark? Possibly, maybe just to try it out. Because I'm curious like a cat. I might try it out for Good Morning Podcasters.

Fuzz Martin 6:03

I'm wondering on my own account, what hoops I'd have to jump through in order to get a gray checkmark because I am an elected official as a trustee of my local village. We'll see. Again, as with anything, we'll see how it goes. We'll adapt from there.

Fuzz Martin 6:18

Thank you for listening to Good Morning, Podcasters! Links and such as GoodMorningPod.com. Some housekeeping, I tried to go every single day this week, but we're going to kick this baby back down to three days per week at least through the holidays, just so that I don't wind up in pod hell. I don't want to be pod faded. However, Jeff Townsend and I will be recording an episode of Podcasting Sucks this evening. So you should be able to expect that as a new episode on Saturday morning. Again, you can get you every episode of both Good Morning Podcasters and Podcasting Sucks at GoodMorningPod.com We'll talk to you again real soon right here on Good Morning podcasters