Issue № 116 | London, Sunday 17 November 2024
Read on to learn why:
① Twitter is a cesspit of fanatics that’s too damaging for any brand.
② Bluesky offers the verification and trust Twitter never could.
③ Financial firms’s reputations will be protected until proven guilty.
④ Digital capital markets will enjoy instant settlement with digital money.
⑤ CMOs earn respect in the C-suite by demonstrating business outcomes.
⑥ High performers deserve your attention more than under performers.
⑦ Savvy investors will make a lot of money from a Trump presidency.
📸 But first, flashback to June 2021 when I told you that events are back. This week, the world’s major cities are spending more than ever to land the biggest events, despite companies pulling back on spending for annual conferences and attendance dwindling.
What's new
Bluesky has had quite a week, the New York Times reports.
In short:
“In the week since the United States presidential election, Elon Musk has used X, the social media platform he owns, to reiterate his support for President-elect Donald J. Trump. Some of the platform’s users have decided that they would rather post elsewhere. Among the largest beneficiaries of that desire is Bluesky, a rival service that has gained more than a million new users in the week since the election. The majority of the new users live in the United States, Canada and Britain.”
“Bluesky, which began in 2019 as a project by the Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, is among several challengers that have each experienced bursts of momentum since Mr. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022 and subsequent rebranding of it.”
“Many of the people leaving X are disappointed by the outcome of the election and now associate the platform with Mr. Musk’s support of Mr. Trump. Others are frustrated by the type of content that seems to be rising to the top of their feeds. ‘You were getting this awful timeline of far-right, white supremacist, conspiracy theory posts — which the great majority of people don’t want to interact with on a daily basis,’ said Dr. McGregor.”
Why it matters
I loved Twitter for its serendipity, authenticity and the relationships it allowed me to build. I’ve met people on Twitter who later became suppliers, bosses and even partners. I’ve taught, debated and mostly learnt on the platform. Hell, I devoted one of the first issues of IMTW to it, then when Musk took over, I wrote him a letter to help. I loved Twitter. But Twitter as we knew it is dead.
① Today, as X, it’s a cesspit of fanatics that’s too damaging for any brand - both personal and corporate - to be anywhere near. Mainstream media are disowning it, French newspapers are fighting it, and a million people a day are now flocking to Bluesky.
With 16 million users overall, Bluesky lags far behind the likes of Threads, Meta’s competitor to X, which this month reported that it had reached 275 million monthly active users. That’s missing the point though. Twitter was never the biggest social medium either but its reach always far exceeded its size. Bluesky has huge momentum and it’s appealing to people who miss what Twitter was in its early years. I don’t think any social medium will be able to capture mainstream media’s attention the way Twitter did for the best part of a decade but Bluesky is the one that will at least come closest to replicating the experience.
What to do about it
Take action
My advice to you this week is short and sweet: abandon your personal and corporate presence on Twitter and migrate to a Bluesky account.
There’s no need to delete your Twitter profile - unless you’re paranoid about AI being trained on its content. Leave a parting message there to tell people to find you on Bluesky.
② Then, take advantage of Bluesky’s best feature: make your domain name your Bluesky handle. This deceptively simple little trick provides all the verification and trust that Twitter’s blue tick never could - even before Musk started selling them. That’s right, the ace up Bluesky’s sleeve is you don’t need to worry about anyone impersonating you. Only the owner of a domain can use it as a handle. It’s clear to all that you are who you say you are.
Get help
IMTW is brought to you by InMarketing, a strategic advisory service for senior leadership teams in B2B finance and technology. It can help you with:
🔎 Audit 🧭 Strategy 🖋️ Messaging ✅ Planning 🤷🏻 Problem-solving ☎️ Counsel
Top stories
The other articles that are worthy of your time.
FINANCE
FCA backtracks on plan to ‘name and shame’ probed companies
③ Financial firms’s reputations will be protected until proven guilty.
“Britain’s financial regulator has said it will ‘fundamentally reshape’ its plan to ‘name and shame’ more of the companies it investigates after the proposals provoked a big backlash in the City of London.”
“The FCA announced in February it planned to name more companies under investigation and at a much earlier stage in an effort to increase the deterrent effect of its probes. [..] Nathan Willmott, a partner at law firm Ashurst, said many in the City suspected that the regulator’s new approach was designed ‘to convey to the media and to politicians that it is an active and aggressive regulator’ by pushing companies to agree to an early settlement of its investigations.”
“Two-thirds of FCA investigations in the past have ended without any enforcement action, raising concerns that it could damage the reputation of companies by disclosing their identity even if the probe ended up not finding any wrongdoing.”
TECHNOLOGY
Market participants urge ECB to extend wholesale DLT trials
④ Digital capital markets will enjoy instant settlement with digital money.
“For the last six months the European Central Bank has been orchestrating wholesale DLT settlement trials using central bank money. More than 70 institutions have taken part, with three different payment options available. Three of the most active participants – Deutsche Börse’s Clearstream, DekaBank and Union Investment – shared their lessons as part of a Frankfurt School Blockchain Center event.”
“All the participants were extremely positive about the trials and keen to see them continue. The combination of tokenisation and central bank money can cut costs, reduce risks and yield efficiencies. Several times they mentioned the potential for a digital capital markets union.”
“All three institutions seemed to envision a wholesale CBDC as the ultimate solution, with the use of existing payment rail integrations such as the Trigger and TIPS Hashlink solutions, seen as more important in the short term.”
MEDIA & MARKETING
The 8 biggest emerging trends according to women CMOs in fintech
⑤ CMOs earn respect in the C-suite by demonstrating business outcomes.
“As fintech companies prioritise growth, 70% of fintech CMOs say marketing is now central to the organisation. Financial services are especially committed to marketing leadership, with 91% of companies employing CMOs compared to just 63% of Fortune 500 organizations. The role of the CMO is evolving, expanding beyond traditional marketing duties to include strategic growth, innovation, and customer experience.”
“While 22% of CMOs prioritise products and 11% prioritise brands, a majority, 67%, view them as equally important. This balanced approach reflects the need for both a strong brand and a reliable product to drive customer acquisition and retention.”
“Trust is fundamental for fintech brands, and CMOs see it as essential to customer loyalty and long-term growth. About 67% of CMOs rate the industry’s performance in building trust as ‘good’ or ‘very good,’ while 33% see room for improvement.”
WILDCARD
Three ways to make sure high performers feel valued
⑥ High performers deserve your attention more than under performers.
Notice them: “Noticing is having a pulse on the details, ebbs, and flows of people’s lives and work and showing them you’re paying attention.”
Affirm them: “Affirmation is precise and delivered interpersonally. When we affirm employees, we strengthen their belief that they matter.”
Show them how they’re needed: “The best leaders don’t just tell people that they matter; they show them exactly how they matter. When it comes to high performers, showing them how they matter could be the difference between keeping them or watching them leave.”
Off cuts
The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter.
FINANCE
🔥 UK takes a match to botched “New Payments Architecture”
⚔️ Inside the arms race for a private stock exchange and why it’s dividing the City
💳 Digital wallets and Open Banking to shape payments by 2025
✂️ Deutsche’s private bank fires 111 senior bankers in cost-cutting drive
💸 Wall Street bankers on course for up to 35% bonus bump
TECHNOLOGY
📈 Klarna picks New York for upcoming IPO
🇧🇷 Nubank surpasses 100 million customers in Brazil
📲 63% of businesses think legacy banks are ‘too slow’, claims Revolut
⛓️ UBS pilots new blockchain-based system for cross-border payments
💰 NovoPayment obtains USD 20 million investment from Morgan Stanley
MEDIA & MARKETING
📏 How to measure social media’s business impact from engagement to revenue
7️⃣ Top 7 employer branding examples
👨🏻🏫 A B2B content marketing strategy that works in 2025
🌅 LinkedIn’s sunset on employee advocacy tools: Strategies for B2B marketers
🥊 Proactive marketing vs. reactive marketing – key differences
The last word
⑦ Gillian Tett on how to trade in the Trump era:
“No one can ‘trade Trump’ just by using the type of asset valuation models taught in finance courses. Savvy investors will need to understand psychology, anthropology and history too, be that 1980s Reaganism, 1930s protectionism, the 19th-century robber barons or Tudor royal courts. Those periods were often ugly. However, savvy — or cynical — players made a lot of money. It will now happen again.”
Don’t settle for marketing.
Strive for InMarketing.
Wishing you a productive week,
P.S. I’d heard rumours it was up for sale but I’m relieved to report that The Polish Club in South Kensington is alive and well - and as delightful as it has ever been.