SOCIAL
Twitter Will Begin Removing ‘Legacy’ Blue Checkmarks from Next Week

Get ready for the next phase of Twitter 2.0’s subscription revenue push, with the platform announcing today that ‘legacy’ blue checkmarks will begin being revoked as of next week.
On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks. To keep your blue checkmark on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue here: https://t.co/gzpCcwOpLp
Organizations can sign up for https://t.co/RlN5BbuGA3…
— Twitter Verified (@verified) March 23, 2023
As per the above tweet, Twitter’s hoping to boost Twitter Blue and Verification for Business subscribers by prompting them to start paying for their blue tick instead.
Twitter’s also alerting blue tick account holders with this in-stream notification.
That could see some legacy verified accounts paying up, bringing in a few more Twitter Blue subscribers – though the amount that are going to revert to Verification for Business, which costs $1,000 per month, will be far less.
But if Twitter wants to reach its target of 50% of its revenue coming from subscriptions, it needs to take action, because right now, according to analysis, Twitter Blue has around 450k subscribers, which equates to only 0.12% of Twitter’s total user base.
In order to generate 50% of Twitter’s total income, Twitter needs around 24 million users to sign up to the program. So while Twitter Blue is set to bring in more money for Elon and Co. (around $11 million per quarter to be exact), it’s nowhere close to being half of the platform’s intake, which, based on its last revenue report, would be around $590 million every three months.
While it also dilutes the value of the thing that it’s aiming to sell. The problem with selling blue checkmarks, both on Twitter and Facebook, is that you’re charging users for the exclusivity, and the perceived reputational value of having a blue tick, but as soon as anyone can buy it, it’s no longer valuable in this respect.
And as more people sign up, it becomes even less valuable over time, and once Twitter removes the legacy blue ticks, that will mean that the only checkmarks left are those that are attached to accounts that are paying for it, which will make it completely worthless in this respect. At that stage, the blue check is only going to show others that you have enough money to afford it, and that you want to support Elon Musk’s mission to change how Twitter works.
Maybe that has some value in itself, and there are some aspects of Twitter Blue that some users will pay for. Though even then, Twitter’s experimenting with a new option that would enable subscribers to not show their blue tick, if they choose – because even Twitter is moving to acknowledge that it’s not the indicator of reputational or exclusivity that it once was.
And it’ll become less so from next week – while it’s also worth noting that even if every legacy checkmark holder were to sign on to pay $8 per month, and keep their blue tick, that would still only be another 420k extra subscribers, max.
And I suspect many won’t. I suspect, too, that removing the legacy checkmarks will have a negative impact, in that it will see some of those users tweet even less, because they won’t feel as aligned to the platform that has taken away that marker from their account.
This is why selling verification ticks is a flawed strategy, because its growth and expansion dilutes its own value, and undermines the concept of what it is. Sure, Meta’s trying the same thing, but even Meta staff raised this same concern (as did Twitter staff), and Meta at least offers a truly valuable aspect, in providing additional, in-person support for paying subscribers.
But even then, Meta’s approach is also flawed, because you can’t sell reputation, you can’t charge for authority or recognition.
Some will think that’s what they’re getting, but eventually, when they’re the only ones left, I think you’ll find that it’ll be much easier to dismiss blue checkmark accounts in-stream.
It’s a confused approach, which won’t become a significant revenue driver – at least not without some significant additions that are worth paying for. But Twitter’s pushing ahead either way.
Prepare to pay up, or lose your blue tick, from next week.
SOCIAL
LinkedIn Adds AI-Generated Job Candidate Responses in Recruiter

LinkedIn continues to integrate generative AI elements, this time within its Recruiter platform, with AI-created messages that HR professionals can then send to potential candidates, which are customized and personalized based on InMail best practices.
As you can see in this example, the new process, built into LinkedIn Recruiter, will enable users to quickly and easily craft a message that they can then send to a potential candidate, simply by tapping the ‘Draft personalized message’ prompt at the bottom of the composer window.

As explained by LinkedIn:
“Using our own LinkedIn in-house generative AI model trained on successful InMails, we use the information from the candidate’s profile, job description, and the recruiter’s company to draft a highly personalized message to get the conversation started.”
Once the AI generated InMail is created, you’ll then be able to further customize the message by ticking the topic elements that you do or don’t want to include. You can then edit and send the message – which should help recruiters save time, while still maintaining personal outreach.
Though it also feels a little impersonal, like maybe this is an element that shouldn’t be automated?
I guess, when you’re dealing with such responses at scale, it’s not really personalized anyway. But as with some of LinkedIn’s other generative AI experiments, like AI created feed posts, it feels like this is taking some of the human interaction out of the platform, and removing the ‘social’ aspects out of ‘social media’.
Maybe that’s an idealistic viewpoint, and the time savings outweigh any overarching principles at play. But it seems like some of these things should be written by a human, in order to maintain that baseline of real connection within these apps – otherwise we’re headed to a future where it’s just bots talking to bots, and when you actually have to meet in person, you’ll never know what you’re going to get.
I mean, theoretically, the candidates could also have written their application via generative AI, and they could respond to these emails with their own generative replies. And if it’s a remote position, maybe you’ll never even meet in person, and it’ll all be just simulated engagement for simulated jobs.
Seems slightly off, but maybe these tools help in some cases, potentially a lot of cases – it just feels like LinkedIn is going to get a lot less genuine than it already is as a result.
Either way, it’s happening. LinkedIn says that it’s starting to roll out AI-assisted messages in Recruiter to ‘a handful of customers’ in the US and Europe, before an expanded launch beginning next month.
You can read more about LinkedIn’s latest Recruiter updates here.
SOCIAL
YouTube Ad Revenue Forecast To Rise 4%, Hit $30.4B, In 2023 05/30/2023

Advertising revenue across all
YouTube platforms, including YouTube TV, should see growth of 4% this year, to $30.4 billion and growth of 10.3% to $33.5 billion, in 2024, according to new WARC projections.
While relatively
modest, 2023’s growth will represent a turnaround from Q4 2022, when YouTube’s ad revenue dropped …
SOCIAL
LinkedIn Launches New ‘Find Your In’ Ad Campaign

LinkedIn’s launching a new promotional campaign, created by ad agency Droga5, which aims to highlight how you can use the platform to find your ideal career pathway.
The ‘Find Your In’ campaign looks to showcase how LinkedIn can unlock new possibilities, so you can be whatever you imagine, with the help of LinkedIn’s connectivity.
As explained by Droga5:
“It starts with a little girl who finds herself in a place that’s perfectly ordinary: the laundromat. But we quickly learn there’s more here than meets the eye. All it takes is a little bit of inspiration from a LinkedIn alert on a nearby phone to set off an unexpected and extravagant dance with her own potential. The future comes to life, teeming with opportunity and endless options to explore.”
Not sure that I felt inspired, as such, by the clip, but it is catchy, and it could prompt people to take another look at the app, and consider how they can utilize LinkedIn as a guide on their professional journey.
LinkedIn’s been working to maximize discovery, and capitalize on its record high levels of engagement, by better highlighting relevant influencers and niche creators, with a view to helping others discover new connections, and explore their passions in the app.
That, ideally, will help more people establish networks of likeminded professionals, which could indeed facilitate new career opportunities through the same.
The campaign could help to amplify this. The new push will run across TV, web and social media platforms over the coming months.
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