The project done as part of MIT Branding course identifies Twitter as a less trustworthy news resource compared with NYT (and other social media) for serious and whimsical news. The project did an independent experiment with 206 survey respondents.

1. Double the user base of Twitter in the U.S.
Branding lens
Bianca Ennes. Pawan Gupta, Lana Ibragimova,
John Kniespeck and Aleksei Smetannikov
Date: 5/12/2015

2. While users read news on Twitter, the
broader audience rarely consider it as a
news source
29%
30%
67%
68%
70%
52%
51%
50%
News
Information
Politics
Status update
Entertainment
Activism (e.g. protests)
Social connections
Friends
% of respondents agree
…but not a
news source at
the first place
“What comes to your mind when
you hear “Twitter”
Source: MIT Sloan team survey, 206 respondentsSource: PEW Research Center
Twitter 52%
reddit 62%
13%LinkedIn
Tumblr 29%
Google Plus 30%
Facebook 47%
Percent of each social network
users who ever get news on the site
Users read
news…

3. Users view Twitter and other social
networks as relatively non-trustworthy
news source
NY
T
26%
Facebook
23%
51%
Twitter
39%
44%
18%
40%
27%
33%
Trustworthy Non-trustworthy
Trustworthiness of a headline “Vin Diesel
considers entering California's next race for
governor”, by source
Source: MIT Sloan team survey, 206 respondents
49%
NY
T
FacebookTwitter
63%
26%
12%
48%
28%
24%23%
28%
Non-trustworthyTrustworthy
Trustworthiness of a headline “Google
announces launch of commercial drones
in 2017”, by source

4. As a news source Twitter is not
structured enough and lacks a
breadth of topics (1/2)
I find too much of a certain
theme, such as too much social-
political and activism
Lack of certain themes, such as
cultural news I care about
Low usability, like it’s hard to
filter the topics, hard to
navigate categories
It’s for FUN nothing serious
should be there
Posts on Twitter are not real
news
2.3
1.5
1.6
2.2
2.3
respondent response rating
“I would not use Twitter as a news
source because”
Lacks a breadth of
topics
Lacks features for
structuring/filtering
the news
Source: MIT Sloan team survey, 206 respondents

5.  It’s possible to follow friend, journalists or media. As for
personalization of my twitter feed - it’s hard to see news
categorized by business related topic, politics related, my favorite
sport related, etc. (Female, around 40)
 I’m not that interested in celebrities life facts. I would rather check
news related to oil and gas industry, or high tech industry since
my finance portfolio is all about those two fields. I want to get most
recent news and act accordingly (Male, 35)
 I like twitter. All my life is there. I can see my friends status, topics
they are interested in, read fun stories, etc. … But with all this
information, real news are kind a buried under… (Female, 27)
As a news source Twitter is not
structured enough and lacks a
breadth of topics (2/2)
Source: MIT Sloan team customer interviews

6. Meet Cradle:
news service by Twitter

7. Positioning map: a trustworthy news
aggregator with a strong social network
component
News AggregatorIndependent
news source
Trustworthy
Non-trustworthy
Sweet Spot
TIME
NYT
WSJ
The Washington Post
The Huffington Post
BuzzFeed
The Daily Show Tumblr
GooglePlus
Facebook
Twitter
GoogleNews
LinkedIn
Reddit
HIGH social network component
Average social network component
LOW social network component

8. Cradle is about aggregating
reliable news with simplicity
 How it differentiates from existing news sources?
 The quality and categorization of the New York Times with the consolidation
of Twitter
 Cool features like verified news sources and user ratings for news articles
 Easy to categorize posts (finance, business, science, political, technology
etc.)
 Viral sharing feature targeting specific Twitter users following news resource
and sharing in different social sites
 The communication should target the following audience:
 Male and female
 In large USA capitals
 25 to 50 years old
 College graduate, Mid-level professionals or higher

9. 2-stage product adoption: start from
existing users, then expand into new and
more “mature” segments
 Target EXISTING users
 Use Twitter API to tap Twitter friends
network
 Increase daily usage of Twitter
 Polish the service functionality
0
10
20
30
40
50
65+18-29 50-6430-49
30%
17%
13%
5%
0
10
20
30
40
50
65+50-6430-4918-29
6%
20%
32%35%
Current* 2018
*2013 Source: stata.com
Twitter penetration rate by age groups,
among US Internet user, including Cradle
*Including Craddle
1 2Phase Phase2015 2016-2018
 Target NEW users
 Older, “serious” users
 Working professionals
 Launch as a stand alone
brand

10. Recent standalone successful
Twitter brands

11. PR and Communication: Case
Studies
Vine: A 6-sec video sharing
service, acquired by Twitter
for a reported $30M
Periscope: A live video streaming
service, purchased by Twitter for a
reported $86M

12. PR and Communication plan
The quality and categorization of the New York Times with
the consolidation of Twitter
Communicating value to users with ~zero marketing dollars
is a touch problem to solve
Partnering with reputed news sources like NY Times,
Washington Post, Forbes, Huffington Post, Colbert Show
requires marketing resources and value sharing to both
parties
Ability to share posts to Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn,
Flipboard and media sources would be the key
Getting your word out in popular online news sources and
growth hack site requires viral stories and media relations

13. Major threats to a new business
model
 Customers and News Sources will consider Cradle to be another
Twitter: non-serious and non-trustworthy
 Customers will not recognize a value of Cradle and a user base
will not achieve a critical mass:
 Cradle fails to come up with a usable and straightforward user interface
 Cradle fails to differentiate content format from actual Twitter (Vine used
6 second video format)
 Cradle fails to educate users about value of the product
 A competitor social app will attempt to create a similar service
 High expectations with Twitter’s 2 recent successful standalone
products: Vine and Periscope

14. Appendix

15. I WOULD use Twitter as a news source because
(rank the options from most important to least important)
Statistic It is both
information
and news
source (not
news only)
It provides
faster and
more concise
news than
Facebook
I can instantly
share my own
opinion about
news
headlines
with my
followers
It allows me
to follow
famous and
influential
people I like
It is one stop
shop for
news, social
connections,
entertainment
Min Value 1 1 1 1 1
Max Value 5 5 5 5 5
Mean 2.79 2.74 3.03 3.10 3.35
Variance 1.92 1.93 1.87 2.13 1.95
Standard
Deviation
1.39 1.39 1.37 1.46 1.39
Total
Responses
206 206 206 206 206
✔

16. I WOULD NOT use Twitter as a news source because
(rank the options from most important to least important)
Statistic Lack of
certain
themes, such
as cultural
news I care
about
I find too
much of a
certain
theme, such
as too much
social-
political and
activism
Low usability,
like it’s hard
to filter the
topics, hard
to navigate
categories
It’s for FUN
nothing
serious
should be
there
Posts on
Twitter are
not real news
Min Value 1 1 1 1 1
Max Value 5 5 5 5 5
Mean 2.67 2.67 2.78 3.39 3.50
Variance 1.32 1.79 2.09 1.73 2.44
Standard
Deviation
1.15 1.34 1.44 1.32 1.56
Total
Responses
206 206 206 206 206
✔

17. What comes to your mind when you hear “Twitter”
(scale the options from least important to most important)
# Answer Min Value Max Value Average
Value
Standard
Deviation
Responses
1 Information 0.00 100.00 51.57 30.37 206
2 News 0.00 100.00 51.30 30.61 206
3 Social connections
(professional
connections)
0.00 100.00 63.57 27.84 206
4 Entertainment 0.00 100.00 69.74 24.66 206
5 Activism (protests,
uprising)
0.00 100.00 53.98 28.52 206
6 Politics 0.00 100.00 49.85 29.25 206
7 Status update 0.00 100.00 67.68 27.33 206
8 Friends 0.00 100.00 66.67 29.79 206
✔
✔

18. Twitter User Profiles
*References from Victoria (classmate) slides