Elon Musk, the Twitter CEO who is reportedly struggling with engagement on his social media platform, personally asked Twitter users to like a car ad for Hyundai on Friday. It was the latest sign that Musk might be running out of ideas on how to make Twitter profitable.
“Take heart,” Musk tweeted to his followers on Friday about the car’s announcement.
The ad, which features actor Kevin Bacon and his daughter Sosie Bacon, is for the Hyundai Ioniq 6 electric car, which is a direct competitor to Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla.
“Sosie Bacon worries when @kevinbacon has her dad’s mind blown by #IONIQ6 all-electric Hyundai,” reads the tweet, which also includes a video.
Hundreds of Musk’s nearly 129 million followers duly hit the heart button, with some even video recording of themselves they did, but the ad commitment was still minuscule relative to Musk’s reach. The ad has been viewed just 53,000 times, according to the platform’s view count, with only 2,550 likes at the time of writing. Interestingly, Musk’s “press your heart” tweet currently has more likes (3,077) than the ad he was trying to promote.
Musk is likely nervous about Sunday’s Super Bowl game, if only because major domestic and international events can challenge Twitter’s servers at the best of times. But a recent outage prompted Musk to call for no rollout changes until after the big game, an effort to ensure the social media platform can maintain a strong influx of traffic.
Many auto companies stopped advertising on Twitter after Musk’s acquisition, not only because Musk owns Tesla, but because many brands became concerned about extremist accounts being allowed back on the platform. And it remains to be seen whether advertisers are truly comfortable returning to Twitter in large numbers.
Despite Musk’s previous claims to be a “free speech absolutist,” the billionaire has shut down accounts with anti-Semitic content, including from his friend Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist, was kicked off the platform just a day after getting his account back last month, according to Reuters. Fuentes was spewing anti-Semitic garbage as he always does, though it’s unclear what Musk expected when he allowed these accounts to return.
Musk has also insisted he will never let conspiracy theory host Alex Jones back on the platform about the InfoWars peddler’s earlier lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, where 20 children and six adults were euthanized. Jones had said the shooting was a hoax, though he revised his opinion after being sued by surviving families for defamation.
However, there are other controversial accounts that have been restored and continue to tweet, including former adviser to President Donald Trump Roger Stone and the president himself. However, Trump has not personally tweeted since his account was restored. Trump reportedly has an exclusive deal with his own social media platform, Truth Social, and it’s unclear if he’s even allowed to tweet yet if he wants to.
But only time will tell if Musk can turn Twitter into the cash cow he hopes it can be. Musk announced an ad revenue-sharing deal with creators, though details about the program have been scarce. The only requirement for users to pay: They must subscribe to Twitter Blue, Musk’s $8-a-month subscription plan. Only 140,000 people have signed up to the plan so far, according to figures from the News from New York. It goes without saying that Musk doesn’t earn much if it is to be believed.
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