Twitter Director talks business, brevity and Bieber at Imperial

Bruce Daisley speaks as part of the Business School's Distinguished Guest Lecture series

By Tanya Gubbay 
Monday 18 June 2012

Bruce Daisley, UK Sales Director for Twitter, spoke last week at Imperial as part of the Business School’s Distinguished Guest Lecture series. Having previously worked for Google's UK display business, growing it from 30th to 2nd largest in the market, he won New Media Age magazine’s award for the Greatest Individual Contribution to New Media in 2010.

Bruce began his talk by explaining a bit of background to Twitter. Having started six years ago, he said it is a business based on the notion that simplicity sticks in the mind. Engaging the audience with examples including Neil Armstrong’s moon landing quote which everyone remembers (“but which is in fact wrong”), Bruce explained that the power of brevity is the defining product of Twitter, which now experiences a staggering 400 million tweets every day.

Bruce used his passion of pop music to illustrate the unexpected connections and conversations that happen on Twitter, like Justin Bieber connecting to Kanye West. With Twitter HQ next to the Radio 1 building, he also said that a recent visit by the pop band One Direction, showed him how far Twitter had come, with hordes of girls writing their Twitter handles (account names) on the railings outside for the band to notice, instead of phone numbers or email addresses that may have been previously used.

Bruce explained that Twitter is about being “open, unfiltered and live”. Whether it’s breaking news, like the Hudson river plane crash where events were first reported on Twitter, or gauging public reaction, like the artist David Hockney did through Twitter from his home in Bridlington about his latest exhibition in London, he said the “walls have fallen down” and Twitter brings you closer to what’s happening, removing the gaps.

Emulating his message of brevity and simplicity, Bruce practised what he preached and finished his talk in a record 30 minutes, leaving the full lecture theatre of staff, students and external guests plenty of time to ask questions.

Tanya Gubbay caught up with him afterwards:

How did you start your career?

I actually started off in radio. When I left university, there wasn’t a lot of work available, but luckily I managed to get a job at Capital radio which I was very pleased about. I loved radio and was also passionate about the internet and as this area grew, more opportunities opened up. I find if you are able to forge a career that is aligned closely to your passions, work tends to be pretty good!

Fans now leave their Twitter account details instead of phone numbers for their pop idols

What does your typical day at work look like?

Twitter is fairly new here in the UK. We’ve just set up the office and there are about 20 of us working there at the moment. My day is very varied. At the moment, I am working on events to spread the word and excite people about Twitter. Twitter’s growth has been fantastic and we’re keen to explain and educate as many people as we can about it.

What’s the best tweet you’ve seen?

That’s a hard question to answer! There are 400 million tweets a day so I can’t guarantee I’ve seen them all, but for me it’s the unique moments that Twitter creates. That could be something I’m personally interested in like Kanye West tweeting Justin Bieber, or the DJ Deadmau5 who had a tweet from someone to say that they had put vocals over his new track. While Deadmau5 didn’t see the original tweet, it was retweeted so many times that he picked it up, contacted the person who had created the lyrics and they now feature on the new single. I love things like that - moments that wouldn’t have happened without Twitter. It’s the coming together of different people in the world on an open platform.

What makes a successful brand campaign on Twitter?

Brands have been on Twitter since day one. Whether it’s your local baker that tweets when they have made new croissants, or a pop star without a record deal tweeting about their music directly. It’s an amazing place to connect people to their passions. It isn’t a social network like Facebook, so you aren’t necessarily connected to your mum, and you tend to just connect with people that entertain or stimulate you. As a result it is very valuable for businesses as they can gain an insight into your passions. For example, a business may be able to gauge that you are interested in technology by who you are following and connected to, so a new laptop might be relevant to you.

You’ve worked for a number of big companies including Google. Any advice for those looking to work for these companies?

Work hard! Google likes people who work hard, but who also have a broader perspective and interests outside of work. This also applies to Twitter and both companies value people who have passions outside of work. Google actually recruits on four criteria, one of which is ‘Googliness’. That means someone with an extra-curricular activity that they are passionate about. It could be anything from aircraft to French art. Basically, someone who exists outside work.

As we heard in your talk, you are a big fan of pop music. What are you currently listening to?

I really love pop music, so for me it would be artists like Justin Bieber. Seriously, I’m very excited about his new album – I know people will be surprised by me saying that – but he’s worked with Kanye West and Drake on it! Take rock, country and ballads out of the equation and for me everything else is in.

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