Will the pink slips dent Twitter’s brand image?

Days after completing his blockbuster buyout of Twitter, Elon Musk last week laid-off almost 50 per cent of its global workforce, including nearly 90 per cent of the staff in India. As the handing over of the pink slips began on Friday, many of the sacked employees ironically took to the microblogging site to vent out their anger and frustration, and  #Twitterlayoffs was soon trending.

Despite Musk justifying the downsizing of the workforce, Twitter has attracted a lot of criticism on social media platforms, with many terming the bloodbath as one of the biggest tragedies of 2022. Adding to Twitter’s woes are several big brands that have paused advertising on the platform following the uncertainty.

The entire hullabaloo has left one with the big question: Will there be consequences? Will this hamper the brand image? Will the social media giant lose trust as an employer?

Maybe, but only for a short period, say brand experts.

According to Samit Sinha, Founder and Managing Partner at Alchemist Brand Consulting Pvt Ltd, the Twitter layoffs will create a short-term impact on the brand image considering the fact that tech companies are mostly overstaffed, and in this case, a change in ownership is leading to the restructuring. 

“Twitter is a global social media platform which is growing rapidly, with nobody looking at its financial performance that closely. It had more people than needed. So from Elon Musk’s point of view, reduction of staff is a corrective measure,” he said. 

“Twitter has to manage two constituents: users and potential employees. When we talk about users, I don’t think the lay-offs will have an impact on its brand image as long as it continues to be the dominant platform with important people using it. But when we talk about the employees, it is certainly going to create an emotion of fear and anxiety for both, existing as well as potential. This will create a certain impact on the brand image of Twitter as an employer, maybe a greater impact on potential employees,” he added. 

Similarly, Harish Bijoor, Brand Guru & Founder at Harish Bijoor Consults Inc., said it is a brutal truth that an incident like this is happening. He said, “How you staff, how you assess your employees and how you even terminate their services seldom affects brands overtly. The user of Twitter is more concerned with his, her or their user experience. There is seldom more than lip-sympathy for the fired employee. Add to it the fact that consumer memory of such incidents is proverbially and really short. Even this shall pass. Sad but brutally true.”

Ramanujam Sridhar, Founder and CEO, Brand - Comm public relations, also believes that public memory is short and the new owner is just evaluating what is right for his business.

He said, “There will be a short-term impact on the brand, but people will forget. One has the right to do what he thinks is right to sustain the business. It may impact the brand as well as the stock prices of the company but eventually, if the company is strong and has a strong business model, it will surpass all this and survive.”

Meanwhile, after the mass lay-offs last week, Twitter has now asked some of the employees to come back, terming their firing an error. The platform said these employees are essential to building the company the way Musk wants.