The data shows that Tesla has significantly increased its own external communications in recent months as Elon Musk becomes increasingly controversial.
Last month I wrote a comment entitled “Tesla urgently needs to bring back its PR department“Why I think the automaker needs to bring back their PR department that they dissolved in 2020.
My main argument has been that most of Tesla’s public communications since then have been through Elon Musk, who is becoming an increasingly controversial and divisive figure for many people, and the company would benefit from more robust direct communication with the public.
Now, Tesla hasn’t reinstated its US or global PR team, at least not yet, but the automaker has certainly ramped up its own communications significantly in recent months.
We’ve noticed that Tesla has been tweeting more about its products lately. Tesla would normally only tweet about new products or features, but in recent months the automaker has started frequently posting new threads that feature existing products and features.
For example, Tesla posted an entire thread today about its track mode:
So that wasn’t common at Tesla until a few months ago electr wondering if it was just in our heads or if the data actually supported it.
Sure enough, the data shows that Tesla has massively stepped up its tweeting over the past three months:
Tesla also ramped up its use of Instagram around the same time. The automaker also uses Weibo regularly, but that has always been the case as a different team handles Chinese communications.
In addition, Tesla also ramped up its blog posting efforts. Prior to September, Tesla had only published two blog posts in 2022 — one on introducing Track Mode in Plaid vehicles and one defending a lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.
But from September through this month, Tesla published six blog posts on its website.
The timing of this change appears to coincide with CEO Elon Musk becoming increasingly controversial.
Polls over the last few months have shown that Tesla’s reputation has plummetedand the stock price continues to plummet than the rest of the industry.
Many people have linked the trend to Musk becoming increasingly political on Twitter and alienating a large portion of Tesla’s user base — namely liberals — who are buying EVs at a much higher price than conservatives.
Electrek’s take
Musk has always been Tesla’s de facto spokesperson, but when Tesla had a global public relations department, the automaker had much stronger public communications that didn’t always have to go through the CEO.
Since the dissolution of the PR department, Musk’s Twitter page has become the source of 99% of Tesla’s official communications.
It makes sense for the company to build a stronger voice of its own given that many people are reluctant to follow Musk on the social media platform.
If you were there for his frequent updates and comments on Tesla products, those are now few and far from Musk’s political comments, conspiracy theories, and concerns about the “wake mind virus.”
I’ll be excited for Musk on Twitter once he seems more excited about Tesla’s launch of the Cybertruck than the next QAnon drop.
This is obviously a joke, but sometimes his Twitter feels like it.
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