The return of Donald Trump to X has reminded everyone of a weird Twitter-era advertising feature that didn’t get a lot of use: branded notifications.
For a few hours last night, people who liked Trump’s tweets about North Carolina got a personal reply. “THANK YOU for liking my post!” Trump’s X account would say. “I’ll send you IMPORTANT ELECTION UPDATES for North Carolina. Make sure you are ready to VOTE FOR DONALD J. TRUMP by November 5th. Reply #stop to opt-out.”
The messages were strange for a number of reasons. Each would directly tag the account that had liked the tweet and personally thank them for doing so. None of the messages appeared on Trump’s timeline but they did generate discrete URLs and could be shared. Once people figured out what was going on, it led to some pretty funny posts. Joke accounts with names like “TrumpIsTheFelon” sprang up and got a coveted “thank you” from the Donald.
@TrumpIsTheFelon THANK YOU for liking my post!
I’ll send you IMPORTANT ELECTION UPDATES for North Carolina. Make sure you are ready to VOTE FOR DONALD J. TRUMP by November 5th.
Reply #stop to opt-out.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2024
Trump is, of course, not manually thanking everyone who likes his posts. This is an ad campaign run by X, a kind of little-used advertisement first offered in the Twitter-era called branded notifications. “Branded Notifications enable advertisers to have 1-1 conversations with customers at scale, delivering time-triggered, automated @mention posts directly to opted-in users at the moments that matter the most,” the X website explained.
If you’ve ever donated money to a political candidate or even signed up for information about local elections, you may have gotten similar messages via text. Branded notifications are basically the same thing but at scale and semi-public. On October 1, Trump’s X account posted a call to action that started 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 — have a plan and make sure you VOTE! pic.twitter.com/lF5GYcrWmC
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2024
Anyone who likes this post can get a personal reply from Trump’s account. The campaign is still running, but it’s changed slightly. Trump’s replies no longer thank the person for liking his tweet.
I’ll send you IMPORTANT ELECTION UPDATES for North Carolina. Make sure you are ready to VOTE FOR DONALD J. TRUMP by November 5th.
Reply #stop to opt-out.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2024
North Carolina is a key battleground state in the election. It’s a swing state and the polls show a tight race. The State Board of Elections recently purged the voter rolls of 747,000 people. And the revelation that Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson has spent much of his adult life posting weird stuff on fetish sites has dinged his chances of a win in the state, and by extension, the fortunes of Trump.
Hurricane Helene has also changed the calculus in the state. Almost 200 people have died and hundreds more have lost their homes and are still without power, water, or food. Both Trump and Kamala Harris have visited Georgia and both are scheduled to visit North Carolina and campaign there, but neither have been since Helene ripped through the state.
