Donald Trump’s return to X reminds everyone of a strange advertising feature from the Twitter era that isn’t widely used: brand notifications.
Over the course of several hours last night, people who liked Trump’s tweet about North Carolina got personal responses. “Thank you for liking my post!” Trump’s X account would say. “I’ll be sending you important election updates from North Carolina. Make sure you’re ready to vote for Donald J. Trump before November 5. Reply #stop to opt out.
These messages are strange for a number of reasons. Everyone will directly tag the account that liked the tweet and personally thank them for doing so. None of these messages appear on Trump’s timeline, but they do generate discrete URLs that can be shared. Once people figured out what was going on, there were some really interesting posts. A joke account called “TrumpIsTheFelon” sprung up and received the Donald’s coveted “thank you.”
@TrumpIsTheFelon Thank you for liking my post!
I will send you important election updates from North Carolina. Make sure you’re ready to vote for Donald J. Trump before November 5th.
reply #stop opt out.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2024
Of course, Trump didn’t manually thank everyone who liked his post. This is an advertising campaign run by X, and is the first in the Twitter era to offer a rarely used type of advertising called brand notifications. “Brand notifications enable advertisers to engage in 1:1 conversations with customers at scale, delivering time-triggered, automated @mention posts directly to opt-in users in the moments that matter most,” explains the X website.
If you’ve ever donated to a political candidate or even subscribed for information about local elections, you may have received similar information via text message. Brand notifications are basically the same, but larger and semi-public. On October 1, Trump’s X account posted a call to action to launch the campaign.
North Carolina: Get ready to vote!
Like this article to get important election reminders from North Carolina.
Whether you vote early or in person on Election Day – make a plan and make sure to vote! pic.twitter.com/lF5GYcrWmC
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2024
Anyone who liked the article can get a personal response from Trump’s account. The event is still ongoing with slight changes. Trump’s replies no longer thank the person for liking his tweet.
I will send you important election updates from North Carolina. Make sure you’re ready to vote for Donald J. Trump before November 5th.
reply #stop opt out.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2024
North Carolina is a key battleground state in this election. This is a swing state and polls show the race to be close. The state Board of Elections recently purged 747,000 voter rolls. The revelation that Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson has spent much of his adult life posting bizarre content on fetish websites hurts his chances of winning the state and, by extension, Trump. Pu’s fate.
Hurricane Helen also changed the situation in the state. Nearly 200 people died and hundreds lost their homes but still without power, water or food. Trump and Kamala Harris have both visited Georgia, and both planned to visit North Carolina to campaign there, but neither has been since Helen swept the state.
