Tesla CEO Elon Musk dissolved the company’s public relations department at the end of 2019, becoming the first automaker without a media relations team.
Much has been said and written about that decision, which was risky for a company that relied on media coverage as the main driver of leads, since it doesn’t do traditional advertising.
Then something big happened in 2022, when Elon Musk bought Twitter, sold billions of dollars worth of Tesla stock to finance the acquisition, sending the automaker’s shares tumbling 65 percent in the process.
But Musk’s Twitter buyout is now beginning to have a positive effect on Tesla, as Bloomberg notes in a report. The company’s corporate Twitter account, @Tesla, has been stepping up its activity on Twitter, effectively using the social media platform as its public relations website.
Tesla tweets much more frequently than before, with some posts clearly resembling 30-second car commercials, which Musk used to describe as a waste of time and resources better spent improving the product.
The electric vehicle maker also makes big announcements on Twitter now, as it did a month ago when it tweeted an hour in advance that Musk and Gov. Gavin Newsom would make an announcement.
Tesla then broadcast the comments on Twitter, posted job openings and broadcast the kickoff party dedicated to turning HP’s former home in Palo Alto into its global engineering headquarters.
However, Twitter cannot completely replace a qualified team of public relations people, Bloomberg argues Tesla was criticized for revealing few details and being vague about the California engineering headquarters, prompting the company to send an explanatory tweet the next day telling people that the world headquarters remains in Austin, Texas. In reality, Tesla never moved his engineering base outside of California.
The report also notes that communication professionals generally advise against offering information about new models during a major event such as Tesla’s Investor Day that took place recently in Austin.
That said, the fact that Musk has invited 16 executives on stage with him is considered a good move and a wise response for investors concerned about the depth of the company’s banking.
