by James Moore
It’s not a stretch to say that it’s been a good year for the digital age, especially recently.
Facebook can claim all-time highs; they can claim new services, new processes, and have brought ‘freshness’ to an industry that really could go stale after a while. It won’t die, of course; we are looking at living in the digital age for the rest of our lives. But when it comes 
to advertising, marketing and public relations for businesses in this nation – social media has to remain fresh and interesting in order to make sure that companies truly thrive.
When it comes to Wall Street, there are also many success stories other than Facebook. The inspired, LinkedIn – the reigning champion when it comes to a business-to-business social media site – raised $1 billion in a secondary offering and its stock easily remained at the top, trading very closely to their all-time highs.
Now…Twitter has filed for an IPO. This was a bit surprising to some, who believed they would run the course as Facebook did and remain private longer. This was not a surprise to others, however, who see Twitter growing by leaps and bounds, edging out many other websites and becoming the second-half of the killer duo that all the nation wants to utilize. (In other words, you can’t say the word Facebook without Twitter being said in the same sentence.)
Twitter doesn’t have the background that Facebook has, of course. This was a site that began quietly and then grew exponentially in only a short time, reaching the pinnacle of success in only a few years and claiming status of being one of the most powerful media companies in the entire world.
If one remembers, it was only back in 2009 that everyone – Wall Street experts and businessmen alike – laughed loudly when the CEO of Twitter claimed that the company was actually valued at one-billion-dollars by venture capitalists. (Considering projections by experts call for Twitter to have a $14 billion IPO, the laughter has petered out).
Twitter is expected to reach revenues of more than half-a-billion-dollars by the end of 2013. But, like Facebook was in the beginning, Twitter has not crossed the line into profitability yet. But…the IPO will change all that, seeing as that it’s never been a better time for Twitter to have their debut on Wall Street.
The market has never been more ready for the Twitter IPO, considering it is a fact that the social media world is never going to die, collapse, or even get remotely smaller over time. The extremely high valuation that Twitter has in the private market makes them a shoe-in to be one of the most perfectly-timed IPO’s ever. And, above all else, Twitter is looking towards the near future. They need a surplus of cash in order to acquire new programs and technology. They wanted Instagram with a passion – even offered $700 million for that (once called small and ridiculous) company. Of course, the monolithic Facebook got it instead.
But with Twitter becoming the prime pick for many out there in the world, this is one company that will have the opportunity to purchase all different types of technology and other areas of social media that will increase the passion that people already have for it.
Social media teams understand that Twitter is a must-have piece of any advertising/marketing campaign. Facebook is still the big gun, so to speak, but utilizing Twitter for social media ads, looping vids, etcetera – can increase ROI; which is exactly what the small- to mid-sized business truly needs in order to survive.
Twitter won’t be the last to announce an initial public offering when it comes to the social media realm, but by going public now – at the perfect time – they are destined to become a heavyweight no matter who or what comes along behind them.
Source: BeFirst Media Group / Baret News Wire