Twitter's IPO: What you need to know and what's next...

Image: Mashable, Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

The Lowdown:
After months of anticipation, Twitter's IPO (TWTR) hit the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning. With the ring of the opening bell, the microblogging site's stock price hit $41.10. This opening was about 73% greater than the company's anticipated target opening price of $26.00 per share announced on Wednesday afternoon. In a nutshell, Twitter's opening day performance went off without a hitch. Their IPO performance stacked up in stark contrast to Facebook's, which opened at $38.00 in May 2012 and closed at $38.23, rising a minimal $0.23. The only downside to the day's performance was that in theory, due to the huge demand for Twitter stock, the company may have left a significant amount of money on the table. Twitter could have (in theory) priced its IPO higher or offered more shares to raise considerably a lot more money. 

What's Next?
Considering Twitter is now officially a publicly traded company, the challenge now exists to produce a sizable return on the investment of their shareholders. This challenge was addressed by CEO Dick Costolo on CNBC's Squawk on the Street: "Twitter needs to get better at the process of 'onboarding' new users who sign up for an account to see what all the fuss is about." In contrast to Facebook, where the user's experience is that of seeing (for example) Halloween snapshots and baby portraits from a variety of friends, family and quasi-acquaintances, Twitter is an outlet whose utility is uniquely customized to users based on their chosen interests. Conveying this message and the ease of use to current and potential users is the sole task of Twitter's marketing team. Considering that the lion's share of Twitter's revenue will be generated from advertising, consumer marketing of the platform itself is essential for the long-term success of the company. This task is positioned against consumer's growing resistance and distaste for intrusive advertising.