Twitter Gets It Right By Hiring a Social CMO

When the news dropped on Sunday that four executives had left their posts at Twitter (or had been asked to leave, still unsure of the details but that's beside the point), I was wondering who CEO and founder Jack Dorsey was going to name into the very important Chief Marketing Officer position at the company. That decision came Tuesday when Leslie Berland was named the company's new CMO.

For years several tech companies have had a big issue that they thought they could "out engineer." The need to not hire marketers because the feeling it wasn't necessary to the growth or nurturing of their platform or product. Don't get me wrong, a good product comes first and that's why you need good engineers. But you also need people who understand behavior and how people use those products. This is where a social CMO works wonders.

While most companies are happy with the "play it by the numbers" conventional and left-brained CMO, the question is do those personalities have what it takes to inspire in the current age?

We live in a world now where there are billions of services and digital products. Plus as we see from the expanding "gig economy," what I do right now with my current crop of digital work products, I may not do eight months from now if I no longer work in a particular role or at a particular company. So while I use services like Sociabble, Cision, Traackr, Sprinklr and a variety of tools now, I may not need to use those in the future depending on how I pivot in my current or future roles.

This leaves tech products realizing for once in the first quarter of the 21st Century how important it is to stand apart from the rest of the other players out there. So even if they only hire one dedicated marketer or "growth hacker," it's important they hire someone who understands how the world is being shaped in front of us. That they understand the users. That they inspire us to use their products because they love those products. I can sense whenever someone is trying to sell me a new solution if they ever use it. Those who don't seem unsure of how it works. That is ultimately a loss in trust and a possible sale. A conventional CMO approaches with a revenue target initiative. A social CMO approaches with inspiration or satisfaction targets. The later knows that when you inspire users, they create more word of mouth, when you create more word of mouth, you create more users. As the old quote goes, "when you take care of the customers you have, they bring you the customers you want."

I am extremely happy with the fact Leslie Berland has been named the new CMO. There are a number of factors I'm excited about which may still not help the company's stock price on Wall Street or win confidence of shareholders. That is irrelevant for right now. Sure, you want to pay back your investors and give them confidence but what's important now is how Twitter wins back the hearts and minds of its users, influencers (like myself - shameless plug for @djgeoffe) and the tech journalist community (which reports on Twitter non-stop). Leslie is the first real social CMO of note to be named to a position of influence like this and probably the best for the task at hand.

I'm certain people will note there are social CMOs at other companies already in existence but Leslie's background in her career has been about how to make communications and initiatives more social by design. She's also led many initiatives at American Express (disclaimer: old client of mine) that were about how to involve community and customers into the equation. If there is anything Twitter needs right now it's how to reinvigorate its die hard community to be excited again. Only the DNA of someone who comes from a more social and empathetic background (rather than an analytical and process-oriented background) will help not only right the ship but progress it far beyond competitors in a short time frame.

I'm still surprised in the year 2016 that legacy companies haven't seen the writing on the wall that conventional marketing tactics and personalities are better left in the 20th Century. Marketers who showcase empathy, collaboration, sociability and show what they're like more than what they know are the future. I feel great about this move. I'm sure Leslie does too.

Geoffrey Colon is a Communications Designer at Microsoft where he works on Microsoft search products. Follow him here on LinkedIn or Twitter for his eccentric points of view on the worlds of marketing and advertising. Check out a copy of his upcoming book "Disruptive Marketing: What Growth Hackers, Data Punks, And Other Hybrid Thinkers Can Teach Us About Navigating The New Normal" out in August 2016 on AMACOM Books.