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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Twitter Begins Charging Users to Tweet, NICKMERCS’ Massive Kick Deal, B2B Marketing Growth Slows

Happy Fall, y’all! We are just 8 days from Halloween and this is my favorite time of the year! The days are warm but crisp and the nights are cool but not yet cold. Here’s some business stories that have caught my eye over the last week:

 

It just feels like the long. slow march toward irrelevance is underway for Twitter/X. Elon seems determined to turn X into a pay to play platform. Since taking over, he’s been introducing numerous ways to charge users for services that were formerly free.  First there was Twitter Blue. Now, he’s begun hinting that users will eventually have to pay to tweet. In fact, such a program is currently being trialed in select countries. New users in New Zealand and the Philippines are being charged $1 a year to tweet. The name of the program is called ‘Not a Bot’ and Elon’s spin is that this will help fight the proliferation of bots on the platform.  The same justification he gave for Twitter Blue, limiting daily tweets, etc. The reality is, bots are just as big of a problem as they ever were.  This is about Elon introducing the idea of paying for Twitter. It’s incrementalism, once the idea has become accepted that core services now will cost something, then he can over time raise the price as much as he wants. I may have more thoughts on this tomorrow, I want to mull this over, but it seems like Twitter is entering that long, slow death spiral.

 

If you’ve read this blog for the last few years, you know I am a big fan of NICKMERCS. He just signed a $10 Million, one year deal with Kick, a Twitch rival. Perhaps the most amazing thing about this deal is that it’s apparently NOT exclusive! Nick will still be streaming on both Twitch AND Kick. Nick is one of the most popular streamers in the world, and he is a masterclass in building and leveraging a community. Nick started streaming in 2010, with an audience of zero. On one of his streams I watched, he mentioned that when he was first starting he would go to a local gas station and buy $20 Amazon gift cards to give away to subscribers during his stream. And his parents were NOT happy with his initial decision to become a full-time streamer. So he went from zero to being one of the wealthiest streamers on the planet, in under 15 years. And a big part of that was due to him creating and SUPPORTING his community of fans. He has given away hundreds of thousands of dollars (maybe more?) to his fans over the years. He loves the people that love him.  Well done, Nick, now how long before that first Nick/Doc/Timmy stream???

 

The economy is hitting B2B Marketing spending as it is all areas of our lives right now. Projected spending on B2B marketing data in 2023 will be almost half what it was the last two years. Spending growth is forecast to see a marginal improvement in 2024, before increasing solidly in 2025.

 

So that’s it for this week’s edition of Monday’s Marketing Minute. I hope you have an amazing week, look for a new post tomorrow and another on Thursday. Oh and likely a post on the Bible over the weekend. Have a wonderful and productive week!

About Mack Collier

My name is Mack Collier and I am a digital marketing and content strategist located in Alabama. Since 2006 I've helped companies of all sizes from startups to global brands such as Adobe, Dell and Ingersoll-Rand, create customer-centric programs, content and experiences. A long-time internet geek, I've been online since 1988 and began using social networking sites in 1991 when I joined Prodigy. Today, I help companies understand how new technologies like web3, crypto and artificial intelligence can integrate with existing marketing strategies to lead to exceptional customer experiences.