Earlier this month, chairman Jack Dorsey was named chief executive officer of Twitter and Square. Since then, the social media company has announced several dramatic structural changes. This Weekly Wrap explores these changes and considers how they may affect the business.
On Tuesday, newly named Twitter and Square CEO, Jack Dorsey, announced plans to lay-off approximately 8 percent of his workforce via a company wide email. According to his plan, which Twitter’s board approved on Monday, many of the lay-offs will come from the engineering team, although multiple other departments will see personnel cuts. In his email, Dorsey promises affected individuals “generous exit packages” and “help finding a new job.” A form filed by Twitter notifying investors of the change states, “The restructuring is part of an overall plan to organize around the company’s top product priorities and drive efficiencies throughout the company.”
Following announcements of lower-level downsizing, Twitter named Omid Kordestani its executive chairman. With Google since 1999 and most recently as chief business officer, Kordestani is credited with overseeing the search engine’s first dollar of profit. Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, publicized the hire Wednesday morning in a series of posts. While the new chairman was unavailable for an interview, a Twitter spokesman said Kordestani would support the company’s leadership team by taking an active role in operations, assisting with recruitment and offering a diverse view to Twitter’s board. Kordestani appears to have left Google on good terms. “We’re excited for Omid and very happy for Twitter… We wish him every success in the years ahead,” said one Google spokesperson.
Despite Twitter’s recent surge of change, the company remains relevant as a top social media site. In fact, during Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate, many viewers also tuned into their Twitter feed to follow like-minded comments in real time. According to data taken from the evening’s “Twitter chatter”, Bernie Sanders was mentioned in 409,968 tweets between 8:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. EST, twice as many mentions as Hillary Clinton. Prior to the debate, Senator Sanders became the first 2016 presidential candidate to purchase a “top trending topic” on Twitter, for which he paid six-figures. The purchase guaranteed that Twitter users on their smartphones would see the hashtag #DebateWithBernie at the top of the nationally trending topics.
This week alone, we can see Twitter changing in significant ways. What effect do you think this could have on the company’s public image? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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Brian Mulligan is an Intern at WordWrite Communications. He can be reached at brian.mulligan@wordwritepr.com or on Twitter, @brian_mulligan1
