Outgoing Twitter CEO Elon Musk recently named former NBC Universal advertising boss Linda Yaccarino as his successor. He initially announced the news in a cryptic tweet stating that a female boss would commence the role in six weeks, before confirming Yaccarino’s appointment the following day.
Twitter has been in a state of flux ever since Musk bought the platform late last year and advertisers are rumoured to have been fleeing ever since, although Musk refutes these claims.
Following the news, some experts think Yaccarino’s appointment could see the social media platform get back on track and regain advertisers’ trust, despite the fact Musk will remain with the platform as an executive and Chief Technical Officer.
Yaccarino spent over a decade at NBC Universal, where her team has generated upwards of $100m in ad sales since 2011.
Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2023
My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.
Twitter is signalling that it is strengthening its advertising credentials
Among these optimistic experts is Jenny Tsai, founder and CEO of influencer effectiveness solution, WeArisma. Tsai suggested that the appointment of a well-respected businesswomen like Yaccarino, who possesses many long-standing relationships with advertisers, indicates Twitter is ready to be taken seriously again.
She told PMW: “With the hire of new CEO Linda Yaccarino, who is extensively experienced in the traditional media sector as well as digital marketing, Twitter is signalling that it is strengthening its advertising credentials to become more attractive to advertisers and again compete with other social media platforms.”
Musk said from the outset that he wouldn’t be Twitter’s long-term CEO and even created a poll late last year asking whether or not he should step down to which 57% of users said yes.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
Yaccarino appears to be have gained Musk’s faith as someone “foolish enough to take the role” and although it appears to be a step in the right direction for the platform attempting to climb back into relevance, advertisers will likely remain trepidatious and try to evaluate just how much control Musk plans on handing over to his new CEO before reinvesting.
Only time will tell if this former NBC Universal staffer is the lifeline Twitter’s allegedly faltering ad revenue has been looking for.
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