Donald Trump Is Twitter’s Best Marketing Tool

Twitter has a Trump problem, but the social network is happy using this problem to its advantage in overseas markets, where its most divisive and controversial account is being deployed as part of a marketing campaign to boost user numbers.

As calls to ban President Donald Trump from Twitter continue in the US, Twitter knows full well this controversy is a key part to any future success it may have.

Adverts appearing in metro train carriages and stations in Tokyo over the last few weeks show a close up of US President Donald Trump idiosyncratically pointing a finger out to an audience during a speech, alongside a Japanese hashtag that translates to #TrumpAdministration. The ads are part of a Twitter campaign called 'There is a 'now' you don't know about', with the idea obviously being to let commuters know that Twitter is the best place to be for all the latest news.

Twitter is a social network where giant tech deals are made and where US presidents are forged, yet it is not making a profit. Trump may be lying to devoted fans, threatening members of Congress who torpedoed his healthcare proposal, and inciting hatred against Muslims, but that controversy breeds the engagement Twitter needs to survive.

A Twitter Japan spokesperson told TechCrunch that the campaign is Japan specific, and ran for two weeks from Monday March 20. Twitter made no further comment to Motherboard.

And as TechCrunch points out, similar shock tactics Twitter used in 2016, including images of refugees and marijuana, show that Twitter isn't scared of using politics for gain, even if it refuses to address it directly on the platform.

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