Twitter needs a front man. @EV sends the wrong signals!
Image is everything, or so they say and that point was driven home to me after seeing Evan Williams (@ev) BBC interview posted on TechCrunch Europe today.
One thing that I’ve always been very conscious of is image, it’s one of the things about myself and this site that I’ve tried to remake as I push myself away from being a purely tech blogger, and as I see it, Evan Williams is not the image that Twitter needs.
Back when I was living in Denmark was working on the, now defunct, social network Bloomer, I quickly recognized the need to have somebody as the face of the company that gelled well with the audience we were trying to engage. The market we were targeting was the Danish 16 – 30 and I knew that from a revenue point of view we would be dealing with Danish businesses.
I was able to speak relatively fluent Danish at the time but knew that my not being Danish could be seen as a drawback as we were trying to partner with local Danish companies.
To that end I partnered with a smart, articulate, Danish guy (Kasper Schademan) to be the face of the network and present the image that we felt would best represent us and appeal to our clients, potential partners, customers and potential audience.
When I look at Evan Williams in the BBC interview, I don’t see anybody inspiring. I don’t see anybody that would make me as an investor, potential advertiser or even a potential twitter user that would make me say – “Yes, I’m going to check out twitter”.
In face the entire interview is “forgettable” at best.
Everything about the interview is wrong, from Evan’s clothes (How old is that shirt?) to the flat, boring, even timid answers he gives which aren’t very well articulated.
Evan comes across as if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and reminds me very much of a stage shy understudy, that never learned their lines, has been thrown in front of the crowd due to the untimely death of the lead, and has to bumble their way through the lines using cue cards.
I have nothing against Evan personally, he may be the nicest guy in the world in real life, but in this interview he comes across as flat and without personality.
Twitter is a young, fast growing, energetic network that enables people to communicate in exciting ways and has lots of potential.
Twitter needs someone to be doing these interviews who is engaging and represents what twitter wants to be. Someone who will draw both users, investors and partners in alike and at the very least, put a face on the company that isn’t entirely unforgettable.
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