The Case for “Twitter 3.0”: The Ultimate Social Media Experience
The Case for “Twitter 3.0”: The Ultimate Social Media Experience
To save Twitter and make it a world-class digital town square, Elon must move beyond a mindset of zero-sum competition and forge truly collaborative partnerships with other social media platforms
As the digital world continues to evolve, social media platforms must adapt and innovate to stay relevant.
Along this line, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has been making significant strides in transforming Twitter, introducing great features like long-form tweets and improved Community Notes.
However, some of his recent actions, such as targeting competitors like Substack, are extremely counterproductive.
See: Twitter now disables likes, replies, and retweets if a tweet has Substack links
The "you must use Twitter and no other platform" mindset serves no one.
This mindset of zero-sum competition may reflect Elon’s current Twitter 2.0 philosophy & roadmap, but I believe the trajectory he is currently taking Twitter is a road to Hell.
It’s time to imagine what “Twitter 3.0” could look like.
Twitter 3.0 would be the ultimate social media experience: a meta-aggregator of the internet's best content, embracing openness and integration with other platforms, and redefining the social media experience for users worldwide.
The time is ripe for a new era of social media that benefits everyone involved.
Let’s dive into how it could be achieved.
How can Twitter 3.0 be achieved?
To create the ultimate social media experience, Elon must…
Foster an inclusive content-sharing environment: Elon should aspire to make Twitter a welcoming platform for marketers and content creators from diverse backgrounds, free from arbitrary limitations. By embracing content from a variety of sources such as Reddit, TikTok, Substack, and Spotify, Twitter can ensure seamless integration with these platforms. To further strengthen this inclusivity, Elon could organize social media summits with leaders from major social media platforms, positioning Twitter as a unifying force that brings together various online communities.
Offer users unparalleled personalization: Twitter should allow users to tailor their feeds according to their preferences by incorporating a conversational recommendation engine. Introducing a friendly chatbot, which let’s call "Tweety" as a placeholder, will enable users to easily customize their content experience.
To see more humorous TikTok videos, users can ask Tweety to display more funny content from the platform.
For those who prefer fewer thinkboi tweet threads, a simple request to Tweety can declutter their feed accordingly.
To minimize political content, users can instruct Tweety to reduce such posts by a specific percentage, leading to a more enjoyable experience.
Encourage developer creativity to enhance user experience: By allowing the development of apps using the "Twitter Protocol," Twitter can foster a marketplace for user interfaces, mini-games, and power-ups that enrich the platform for creators. Innovative features like "Super Retweet" can empower users to promote others' content, unlocking numerous fun and practical tools built on Twitter's vast social graph.
Prioritize authenticity and safety on Twitter: Establish a collaborative community of data scientists dedicated to identifying and eliminating fake accounts, thereby ensuring a secure and genuine experience for all users. By leveraging collective efforts and cutting-edge technology, Twitter can minimize the presence of fake accounts and misleading information, creating a more trustworthy environment.
The Growing Demand for a Comprehensive Meta-Aggregator Social Media App
Every day the demand for a single app that people can go to to see the most relevant information across any other app is growing.
Elon wanting everything to be natively posted on Twitter is a huge mistake. He should create a platform that celebrates and partners with new, exciting, niche platforms.
The internet beyond Twitter is already brimming with exceptional content.
All that Twitter needs to do to greatly enhance its users' experience is to curate and seamlessly integrate top content from various platforms, such as:
Reddit, Lens, Farcaster, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Fanhouse, Substack, Medium, Rumble, YouTube, Behance, Artstation, Discord, KAYA, Clubhouse, Twitch, Etoro, Bereal, Mastodon, Post, Diem, Spotify, and Telegram. This list goes on…
If Twitter doesn't become a meta-aggregator of the internet's best content, someone else will.
If Twitter doesn’t do this, another platform will reap MASSIVE rewards.
In the same way that TikTok saw a huge unmet opportunity to feed users a hyper personalized short video feed and created one of the fastest growing businesses ever, don’t be surprised if a meta-aggregator similarly wins BIG in the coming years.
Yup is an example of an emerging platform striving to meet this demand https://twitter.com/yup_io. Its tagline, "The best of Farcaster, Lens, Mirror, NFTs, Twitter, and all of web3 in one curated feed," reflects its ambitious goal.
While Yup has the right idea, Twitter is best equipped to seize this top spot.
Imagine a Twitter where users confidently share links from multiple platforms, and the integration is so well-designed that viewing Mastodon or Instagram posts on Twitter becomes even more enjoyable than on their native platforms.
By embracing content from diverse sources, Twitter can create a comprehensive meta-aggregator social media app, offering a rich and personalized experience that keeps users engaged and connected with the best content the internet has to offer.
The first super-app of the West won’t look like WeChat, which centralizes every piece of functionality under one company.
It will instead embrace openness and integration with other sovereign companies—being the ultimate hub for all social media and content platforms.
Conclusion: Elon Can & Should Do What Makes Sense For EVERYONE
To transform Twitter into the world's greatest social media platform, Elon Musk must shift gears and become a radically supportive collaborator with the ever-expanding ecosystem of social media platforms and developers.
Embracing this mindset will not only benefit Twitter itself but will also enrich the experiences of users, content creators, and the digital landscape as a whole.
By fostering inclusivity, personalization, developer creativity, and safety, while embracing openness and integration with other platforms, Twitter 3.0 can become the ultimate social media experience that connects people with the best content the internet has to offer.
The future of social media lies in collaboration and interconnectedness across platforms, and it's in Elon and Twitter’s interest and power to lead the way in shaping this new era.
I hope he understands this soon.
this is a great compliment sandwich. but it doesn't seem like Elon is in it to foster inclusivity. most signs point to promoting certain ideologies while burying others... and FREEDOM. but this is a great playbook for the next big aggregator!