“How do you make the case for advertising on a platform like that?”
Elon Musk’s woes have increased after it was revealed that an advertiser boycott of social media platform X has led to a collapse in revenues.
X, formerly Twitter, has come in for some heavy criticism in recent weeks after allowing misinformation to be spread freely following the horrific attacks in Southport, in which three young girls were killed in the attack that took place during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
The misinformation played a significant role in far-right riots in towns and cities across the UK, while Musk has also welcomed back the likes of far-right figures and groups such as Tommy Robinson and Britain First on the platform.
City A.M. reports that ‘whereas pre-Musk Twitter was once a good avenue for brands to insert themselves into the biggest conversations, its unregulated nature has made it hard to convince his clients to part way with money on the site’.
“The great salespeople have left, the verification system is a mess, half your followers are now sexbots, the most interesting people have moved somewhere else, the people still there are posting less, and your timeline is just and endless stream of misery”, said Alex Wilson, a senior strategist at London agency Pitch.
He added: “How do you make the case for advertising on a platform like that?”
Figures reported in October last year, that monthly U.S. ad revenue at social media platform X has declined at least 55% year-over-year each month since billionaire Elon Musk bought the company.
The advertising boycotts may be catching up with Musk, with Fortune reporting earlier this month: “The last publicly available figures prior to Musk’s acquisition, from Q2 of 2022, had revenue at $661 million. After you account for inflation, revenue has actually collapsed by 84%, in today’s dollars.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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