After recently announcing that it would be bringing back its "client council" to provide input into key ad policy decisions in the app, X now has scheduled the first meeting of the new group: one that will provide some of X's biggest ad partners with the chance to raise any questions or concerns that they may have about the re-named platform and its future direction under CEO Linda Yaccarino and owner Elon Musk.
X's Client Council will offer direct linkage between key decision-makers, enabling X to create more depth and insight in its work for the betterment of the platform, and partners' active questions on its progress and development in all fronts.
From there, they can actually make more informed decisions around their ad spend. And with X's ad revenue still down by around 50% since Elon Musk purchased the app, it has its work cut out in terms of reassuring ad partners on the safety of its new "Freedom of Speech, Not Freedom of Reach" approach.
Many advertisers paused their spend after Musk purchased the platform, amid his various vows to allow more free and open speech in the app, even if some people would find such to be offensive. Since then, Musk has gutted X's moderation capacity by cutting 80% of the company's employees, softened the platform's stances on misinformation and hate speech, and let many previously banned users back on the app under what he's called an 'amnesty'.
Musk's original play was to make a bigger push on subscriptions as a way of getting X away from ad revenue, allowing him then to remake the rules of the platform in his own image, no longer having to respond to concerns over ad partners. But that hasn't worked, given less than 0.5% of X users have signed on to X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue) as X continues to try and push users towards its verification offering.
That means that X is indeed still reliant on ad spend, so it's now looking to enhance its appeal to brand partners and ensure they remain on board with the plan.
Because if they don't, X won't survive. As such, you can expect this forum to have at least some sway in future platform decisions.
On the other hand, such risks have not shifted Elon's own behavior, who continues to announce changes that are unpopular with users and brands alike. Musk's latest announcement is that X will be eliminating blocking for users, which is a violation of app hosting rules and would be a significant risk for brand safety.
That left Yaccarino playing damage control, assuring users the team has a plan.
But they probably don't, and it will be interesting to see how Yaccarino will be able to maintain the steady balance of managing ad partner expectations on the one hand, and appeasing Elon's various whims on the other.
It seems like an unenviable position, but thus far, Yaccarino has been towing the company line, as she continues to re-state her support for Musk's "provocative" leadership style.
The Client Council could end up being a wake-up call for Yaccarino in this respect, especially if the participants don't buy what X is selling, in terms of its stated brand safety benchmarks and achievements.
In other words, no one actually believes the assertion that 99.99% of all Tweet impressions are now going to content that does not infringe on the platform's terms of service.
I suspect this, and many other questionable stats, will be scrutinized more closely at the next meeting.