Four ways Twitter can win back investors

It's no real surprise that Twitter's CEO Dick Costolo has resigned.

Twitter's huge potential still remains just that; potential not captured. It would not surprise investors if the next quarterly results continue with a string of disappointments. The expectation at this point is for lackluster performance.

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The interim CEO Jack Dorsey is a placeholder until the right executive can be found that can restore investor confidence. That confidence will only return when there is clarity about how Twitter will leverage its huge user base combined with a clear vision of how Twitter can continue to be relevant. The opportunity is there but Twitter cannot waste time as competitors continue to focus on growing their market share at Twitter¹s expense.

John Chiala | CNBC

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter.

Twitter needs to do four things to re-engage investors and assure the investing public that the hope of Twitter as an investment is not a mirage.

Make changes to encourage repeat use of the platform

Twitter has a huge number of signed-up users that are dormant in terms of usage. Registered users need to be turned into frequent users.

Twitter needs to make the product easier to use with compelling reasons for repeat use. The key is encouraging engagement.

Innovate, innovate, innovate

Twitter has a huge user base with massive usage around the world. It would be easy to make small, safe adjustments in the platform to not alienate active users. However, that would be a mistake.

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Twitter needs to think with creativity. The announcement this week that the 140-character limit for direct messages has now been increased to 10,000 characters is the type of change that needs to occur. Twitter cannot be cautious. Time to break the mold and innovate.

Inform the public that MAU is not the only success metric

The investing public focuses on a metric that is not necessarily the whole story when it comes to the health of the business. Monthly Active Users (MAU) is one sign of the level of engagement for Twitter users.

Twitter needs to lay out a clear plan on how it plans to capture opportunity from logout users, Define the metrics that paint a more complete picture of the business.

Define a clear strategic plan

Twitter needs a much clearer strategic plan that needs to be communicated to the investing public. There¹s a reason why the stock has fallen below the closing day IPO price. Investors have lost confidence and that confidence needs to be rebuilt. Just a few of the questions that need answers include:

• What's the strategy to engage users?
• How will Twitter compete against Instagram? Against Facebook? Against Snapchat?
• How will Twitter increase advertising revenue without alienating users?
• What is the specific plan to increase usability?
• How will Twitter deal with cyber bullying?
• How can Twitter become more of a timeline of events rather than one-off bursts of commentary?
• How will the company measure its success beyond Monthly Active Users?

These and many other questions need to be thoughtfully addressed by management. Ambiguity won't do; investors are demanding clarity and an operational vision that resonates. Investors are waiting and are quickly losing patience.

Read MoreHere's Twitter's biggest problem

Twitter's user base is the envy of the Internet and they have the opportunity to leverage huge reach into huge revenues. Twitter has a great problem — hundreds of millions of users waiting for the company to give them another reason to be more active in using the product. The change of management is a first step towards resetting the company's path and restoring investor confidence.

Commentary by Michael A. Yoshikami, the CEO and founder of Destination Wealth Management in Walnut Creek, California. He is also a CNBC contributor.

Disclosure: Michael Yoshikami does not own shares of Twitter and has no other business relationship with the company. But Destination Wealth Management may buy Twitter for clients.