It’s no secret that Twitter has been trying to reinvent itself recently in order to combat rumours of dwindling activity, which were abated temporarily by the hype of the US Presidential election.
Nicoletti, who was previously head of online sales before being appointed to her new role in October, told the publication that live streaming would now be an all-guns-blazing audience focus for Twitter.
The intention is for revenue to follow as she optimistically announces that her objective is for the company to attain profitability in 2017. This comes after the social media giant announced it would lay off around 350 employees as part of cost cutting measures.
Live Sports
Interestingly, Twitter actually already has streaming deals in place with professional sports leagues such as the NFL and it happened to stream the Melbourne Cup in Australia as part of its first live stream partnership outside the US.
“At this point we’re in a lot of discussions with different vendors across sport, media, news and entertainment,” Nicoletti said. “From an advertising perspective, we’re hoping to monetise those deals and we’re also looking to work with our global partners to help monetise some of the global live streams that will be available in the Australian market.”
Twitter’s NFL livestreams attracted a decent number of followers, with NBC reporting the average audience on Twitter for the Texans-Patriots game was 327,000.
Monetising Video
Twitter also livestreamed a presidential debate with Bloomberg Media in September. Additionally, Twitter Australia has dabbled in food video content, but only time will tell if this is going to be a long-term strategy.
What is for certain is that there will be plenty of competition in the form of YouTube and Facebook Live, the latter of which took the accolade for hosting the first online leadership debate, between Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten in June.
The change in strategy will bring up numerous challenges, not least due to the fact that Twitter recently announced it would be shutting down its six-second video platform Vine, which had been largely abandoned by both Twitter and its users. A part of me wonders, why not adapt it for live streaming instead of starting all over from scratch? Whatever their plan of action, you can count on seeing Twitter follow Facebook into the realms of live videos in due course.
Kai Sanders is one of Shake's dedicated Account Managers and an expert copywriter. From Facebook campaigns to Instagram Stories, Kai specialises in bringing digital content to life.