Do you like that word — twansparency? I just coined that after reading this news story in which Twitter CEO and co-founder Ev Williams shows he has the cojones to worry aloud about where his company is heading.
Now maybe this is a case of sandbagging — maybe Williams is just pretending to worry the way a friend of mine used to pretend to read romance novels in front of her competitors right before she kicked their asses in high school debate competitions. But Evans sounds sincere enough as he talks about what Twitter is, where it’s going, and what his concerns are.
Like some other social networking sites, Twitter is more concerned (for now anyway) with building users and less concerned with finding a revenue stream. In fact, Twitter just turned down a deal offered by Facebook for $500 million (mostly in stock) to be bought out.
Not only that, but Evans says that, as Twitter works to figure out how to make money, for now the company will keep relying on investors’ cash to move forward and avoid taking on ads. That is, as they try to figure out the best way to generate revenue, they will only spend private funds rather than experiment “out loud” with revenue generating.
Also, Evans totally admits to being wildly worried that any minute now some competitor is going to launch a microblogging site that will, in his words, kick Twitter’s butt.
It’s nice to hear some real honesty out there, especially from a company that, while it only has 25 employees now, seems on the verge of exploding. And still, they have the wisdom not to let hubris get in the way. Or, to put it in Tweet format (140 characters to be precise):
Ev — thanks for telling us what you’re really thinking. Nice change esp in light of all those Wall Street clowns that BSed the world. Bravo.
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3 responses so far ↓
1 juliegomoll (Julie Gomoll) // Dec 3, 2008 at 6:41 pm
@spikegillespie coins a word – Twansparency. Plus a shoutout to @ev http://is.gd/a54g
2 juliegomoll (Julie Gomoll) // Dec 3, 2008 at 6:41 pm
@spikegillespie coins a word – Twansparency. Plus a shoutout to @ev http://is.gd/a54g
3 Susan Price // Dec 5, 2008 at 8:21 am
Nice one, Julie! I’m betting your Twansparency phrase has some legs. I certainly relate to this issue – the folks to whom I’m pitching a social media campaign this afternoon will see my last few tweets. Do I let them know how important it is to me, that I’m sweating it? That I am still putting it together minutes before our meeting?
I like to tweet transparently because it feels good, and it’s so darned much more work to filter. Filtering kills my buzz. Transparent behavior is a step toward the world I want to inhabit – the one where we don’t have to hide, and everyone plays openly by the same rules, accepts responsibility for actions.
Mena Trott created VOX to address this – so we could direct blog posts from a users & groups model. She has the right idea.
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