Twitter the Stock, Twitter the Brand

The “welcome to the club” party for Twitter this year was nothing more than sensational. The hype (or, over-hype) of the company’s IPO as 2013 drew to a close was similar to Facebook’s in 2012. It’s rare for one great company to go public – it happens about once every 10 years -  so it was even rarer for two in consecutive years.

Lately, the trading in Twitter has been so frequent and so active that some are comparing the action to the dot.com era of the late 1990′s, and I agree. I was trading back then, and I can certainly see the comparison, especially with companies that make little money or trade at astronomical valuations. Further, trading on Twitter options has been brisk with enormous moves and giant rises in implied volatility. Suffice it to say, Twitter the stock has been grabbing everyone’s attention, but we have to ask: Is it justified? Is there some kind of mystique associated with Twitter?

Much like Google, Twitter has become an iconic brand and its name has turned into a verb, earning it a permanent place in our vocabulary. The value of that shift is immeasurable. I suspect Twitter will wind up in the top 30 of the most identifiable brands (it is still too early, but if there were a poll, in my opinion they would be this high).

For those of you on Twitter, has this tool become part of your day? For many of us, including me, it has become an important way to connect with a wide audience that previously had been unreachable. The emergence of social media has made our world a bit smaller and tighter. Sure, we have to sacrifice some privacy, but it has become a tremendous marketing and sales tool, allowing me to get the word out quickly to a vast audience.

There are still many things to be discovered about how to leverage this relatively new medium. Additionally, its enormous base of users may just be ripe for a new kind of sales pitch. No doubt Twitter will figure it out.