Ticketmaster faces another test, Musk conducts a weird test and more

Ticketmaster has another chance to get it right — or very wrong.

Months after the Taylor Swift tour debacle, another of the most popular artists in the world has announced a world tour, with tickets to be sold by Ticketmaster.

Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” tour was announced Wednesday and there is little doubt it will also set records for demand. But will the ticket giant actually be able to successfully accommodate that demand?

Ticketmaster released a blog post outlining how the process works. You must be a “Verified Fan,” basically a process to show you aren’t a bot or reseller. Those fans will then get an access code with a time they can attempt to purchase tickets. If you miss out, there’s a waitlist.

However, the post notably doesn’t address what Ticketmaster has changed since its last attempt to sell a superstar’s tour. The Verified Fan scheme isn’t new — and didn’t work last time. Have new servers been added to handle demand? What is the plan B if demand crashes the site again? The blog doesn’t say.

And fans are already prepared for trouble.

Your site better work and be prepared when these Beyoncé tickets drop! @Ticketmaster pic.twitter.com/f8InX84lPt

— Ashley K. (@AshleyKSmalls) January 31, 2023

Hey, remember when concert tour announcements were exciting news drops instead of harbingers of an impossibly complicated and bewilderingly expensive buying process that ruins the entire experience before it ever kicks off?

Anyway, thanks again Ticketmaster! You're doing great!

— Corbin Reiff (@CorbinReiff) February 1, 2023

Why it matters: The Taylor Swift sale went so poorly, the Department of Justice is investigating Ticketmaster and Live Nation and discussing breaking up the company. Yet the company still isn’t being clear about changes that customers need to know about. Of course, none of that matters to the market: Ticketmaster is the only primary market seller of these tickets. Still, clearer communications—including the steps that Ticketmaster will take to not repeat its sins of the past and an acknowledgment of the current investiagations into its practices—would better help customers know what to expect,  for better or for worse.

Elon Musk locked his account for a weird reason

Congrats, folks, we made it 10 days without mentioning Elon Musk in The Daily Scoop. But he’s back today because he briefly made his own Twitter account private. Now, since he has 127 million followers, “private” is a relative thing. But he used the Twitter functionality to make it so only people following him could see his tweets.

As Mashable explains, some people have been complaining that they’ve received more Twitter engagement when their accounts have been locked than when they’ve been public.

Mashable expounds on why this is … pretty weird.

For one, his testing sample is apparently of one user, himself. Engagement and reach ebbs and flows based on an assortment of various issues at any given time. Sometimes content just gets more engagement based on the time that it’s posted or what else is going on that day on the platform. It’s unlikely that one user’s experience will get to the bottom of the issue if there is one.

Another issue is that Musk owns the platform. He has access to Twitter’s code and its developers. Those developers have tools (one would hope) that can very well reverse engineer the issue and figure out what changes were made over the past month that contributed to this problem. Musk locking his account is unnecessary and melodramatic.

Musk unlocked his account overnight and said, “This helped identify some issues with the system.”

Why it matters: Musk’s behavior here is just another indication he doesn’t have full control or understanding of what happens in his own company. As Mashable astutely noted, he has access to raw code and talented coders (those who haven’t been laid off). What could be learned from the behavior of his own, very unrepresentative account that couldn’t be learned from popping the hood on his own product?

It all indicates he thinks that his own experiences on Twitter are similar to what the average user experiences — they certainly are not. And it also shows that he thinks his ad-hoc experiments are more revealing than what his own employees tell him. Overall, it continues the picture of chaos and a lack of discussion with his employees that has so characterized his tenure and is unlikely to reassure brands worried about the stability of the product.

Most Americans believe social media is going the wrong way

A majority of Americans (53%) say social media sites are changing in the wrong ways, according to a new Morning Consult poll. However, there are direct connections between this world view and age and political affiliation: 62% of Gen Zers believe social apps are heading in the right direction, compared with just 38% of baby boomers. Additionally, 57% of Democrats believe social sites are heading in the right direction, compared with 38% of Republicans.

So what do people want to change? Eight-six percent want better data privacy, 83% want better protection for young users and 83% want more bot removal.

Why it matters: We’re once again looking at a yawning gap in age and political affiliation. This is becoming increasingly common when it comes to just about any public opinion poll we see: Gen Zers and baby boomers are living in different realities, with millennials and Gen Xers in the middle.

Make sure you understand your audience demographics as you’re looking to appeal to them. Even though baby boomers might be using social media, they’re more likely to be suspicious of it, while Gen Zers are excited and optimistic. Apply these insights as you segment your messaging.

Everyone is tired of jargon

Quiet quitting. Quiet hiring. Quiet firing.

Everyone just wants the buzzwords to stop.

A newsletter from Bloomberg pointed out our overwhelming fatigue with the catchy labor terms du jour, and the reasons behind it: “When so many foundational assumptions about work have been upended, we may be forgiven such two-word catchphrases to help make sense of it all. But at a certain point, all of the buzzwords and their spinoffs lose their meaning and start to add to the confusion rather than alleviate it.”

So what can we as communicators do to help combat these exhausting phrases?

The Bloomberg newsletter suggests:

• Consider who’s pushing the jargon. Is it a random term that emerged from a person on TikTok, or is it a consultant using it to make themselves seem more important?
• Is there data behind the term? Bloomberg points out that the “Great Resignation” was easily quantifiable with labor data. “Quiet quitting”? Not so much. Pay greater attention to trends with strong data behind them.

Why it matters: The most important job of a communicator is to convey information in ways that are clear. If our audience is groaning and tuning us out because we’ve used one too many hip, trendy words, the message is lost. Think before you jump on the latest trend. Read more about avoiding jargon on our sister site, Ragan.com.

Allison Carter is executive editor of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.