Donald Trump’s return to X reminded everyone of a strange, underused Twitter-era advertising feature: brand notifications.
For several hours last night, people who liked President Trump’s tweets about North Carolina received personal replies. “Thank you for liking my post!” Trump’s X account would say. “We’ll send you important election updates from North Carolina. Get ready to vote for Donald J. Trump by November 5th. Reply #stop to opt out.”
The message was strange for various reasons. Each person directly tagged the account that liked the tweet and expressed their personal gratitude. None of the messages appeared on Trump’s timeline, but a separate URL was generated that could have been shared. Once people realized what was going on, some very funny posts emerged. Joke accounts with names like “TrumpIsTheFelon” have popped up to get a much-needed “thank you” from Donald.
@TrumpIsFelon Thank you for liking my post!
We’ll send you important election updates in North Carolina. Get ready to vote for Donald J. Trump by November 5th.
reply #Stop Opt out.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2024
Of course, Trump doesn’t manually thank everyone who likes his posts. This is an ad campaign run by X, which uses a little-used type of advertising called brand notifications that first appeared in the Twitter era. “Brand notifications allow advertisers to have one-on-one conversations with customers at scale, delivering automated, time-triggered @mention posts directly to users who opt in at the moments that matter most. ” explains the X website.
If you’ve ever donated money to a political candidate or signed up for information about local elections, you may have received a similar message via text message. Brand notifications are basically the same thing, but larger and semi-public. On October 1st, President Trump’s X account posted a call to action to begin the campaign.
North Carolina: Get ready to vote!
Like this post to get important election reminders in North Carolina.
Whether you vote early or in person on Election Day, plan and make sure you vote. pic.twitter.com/lF5GYcrWmC
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2024
Anyone who likes this post will receive a personal response from President Trump’s account. The campaign is still ongoing, but the contents will change slightly. President Trump’s replies no longer thanked people who liked his tweets.
We’ll send you important election updates in North Carolina. Get ready to vote for Donald J. Trump by November 5th.
reply #Stop Opt out.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2024
North Carolina is a key election battleground state. It’s a battleground state, and polls show it’s a close race. The state election commission recently purged the voter rolls of 747,000 people. Then came the revelation that Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson had spent much of his adult life posting bizarre things on fetish sites, threatening his chances of winning the state and, by extension, Trump. ‘s fate was also in jeopardy.
Hurricane Helen also changed the state’s calculations. Nearly 200 people were killed and hundreds more were left homeless and remain without power, water or food. Trump and Kamala Harris have both visited Georgia and are planning to visit North Carolina to campaign, but neither has visited since Helen tore through the state.