Dive Brief:
- Twitter is shutting the Dashboard app for businesses on Feb. 3, the company announced in a tweet yesterday.
- Only launched in late June of last year, the app was intended to offer a single destination where businesses can see what's being said about them, schedule tweets and view performance insights.
- While no explanation was given for the decision, the company said it hopes to bring the best features from Dashboard to the broader community in the future.
Dive Insight:
Twitter has been jettisoning some parts of its business in an attempt to right the ship and position itself for a profitable future as user and revenue growth slow, with Dashboard the latest casualty. The company apparently is trying to slim down its platform, likely in an attempt to be more efficient — a necessary step as its workforce shrinks. Marketing services could take a backseat as the company focuses more on big broadcast deals and news as well as new strategies such as 360 video.
The Dashboard announcement comes as Twitter is also planning to eliminate lead generation campaigns soon. The company also previously said it would get rid of the Vine app, but then decided to reconfigure it following an outpouring of support for the app from the social media community.
With a number of popular social media management tools already available on the market, Dashboard was an attempt by Twitter to give small- and mid-size businesses, for whom social media is becoming increasingly important, some of the same capabilities to streamline and optimize their activity. Going forward, these companies may need to look to Hootsuite and other social media campaign management software to fill the gap left by the departure.
