It is easy for successful entrepreneurs who lead a public lifestyle to become bloggers – they already have a loyal user audience that follows their lives, statements, and actions. Every post will be carefully read and commented on. The question is, why do already successful businessmen like Elon Musk or Oleg Deripaska want to do this? The answer depends on their goals. Having media weight and status in society, it is easy to become a leader of public opinion, influence the agenda, and promote narratives that are favorable for the author in terms of reputation or business.
Well-known political scientist Vladislav Soloviev can also be called a blogger – he regularly publishes articles in Zen and runs the EN+ platform, where independent English-language journalists can publish their material. In his new article, Soloviev discusses the potential impact of business bloggers on their audiences, which can prompt both creativity and destruction.
Why does billionaire Musk need social media?
Users of the former Twitter (now it’s just X), as well as those who follow the current agenda, are aware that the richest living businessman, Elon Musk, purchased the social media platform more than a year ago for 44 billion dollars and became its main owner. A little earlier, the creator of SpaceX and Tesla said that he wants to leave entrepreneurship and engage in blogging. He said that there are plenty of opportunities for self-actualization in this field.
Musk and his team have made significant changes to the platform by canceling a certain part of its culture. According to the billionaire, this is just the beginning of big changes. Users reacted differently to the innovations: some demanded that the bird be returned, while others urged the author to continue to “rock on”. The millionaire said that he plans to completely reformat the network and make it a more applied and multifunctional platform that can be used not only for communication but also for file sharing and financial transactions.
Vladislav Soloviev encourages his readers not to pay attention to the evolution of the social media, but to focus on the public position of Elon Musk. Through posts on the X, the author is able to influence millions of users, which is a serious political force. There are also economic effects from the publications: Musk uses the platform for polemics with other businessmen and media personalities. A number of times, certain tweets have caused tangible changes in stock market prices.
Many of Musk’s messages look quite harmless – they can even be called inspiring and motivating (space, dreams of mankind, etc.). However, recently, amid geopolitical crises around the world, the billionaire began to interfere in political affairs, criticizing presidents and even entire countries. Such posts are quoted by thousands of other bloggers and cause entire battles on social media. What is this but an influence on public opinion and on the minds and hearts of millions? If he wants to, Musk is quite capable of changing the worldview created by mainstream media sources. The slogan “politicians are lying to you!” can be used for any purpose.
In turn, the world media represented by Bloomberg, Washington Post, and other media giants, urge readers not to trust information from ex-Twitter, claiming that there is a lot more fake news here than on other social media networks.
Oleg Deripaska’s Telegram channel – another tool to influence society
When compared to another blogger – Oleg Deripaska – Musk’s posts look too lightweight. The former owner of major mining companies also runs a blog, but on a different platform – Telegram. The format of Deripaska’s channel does not allow for comments, and the size of the audience is much more modest than Musk’s. However, according to Vladislav Soloviev, this blogger also influences public opinion. His posts mainly concern politics and economics and mostly contain analytical material, i.e., the opinion of an expert (Deripaska himself) on certain topical issues.
In particular, his posts often reveal the theme of the reshaping of the world economy. The West is losing its dominant position in the world, while Eastern countries are building up their economic and political power. The billionaire writes a lot about the successes of China and India, predicts the collapse of the existing monetary system, publishes excerpts from popular world publications, and criticizes them.
Blogging perspectives
Vladislav Soloviev believes that the blogs of media personalities have already become equal in their social importance to the official media, and their influence will only increase in the future. He also created his EN+ blog with the aim of getting people to read and think about important social topics.
According to the political scientist, global elites have been pursuing a consistent policy aimed at the intellectual degradation of society for decades. Independent platforms and blogs can become an effective tool in the fight for independent thinking, which has recently been under increasing pressure from all sides.