Plus: NYC mayor celebrates 100 days in office; in-person social groups are the hot new marketing frontier.
Elon Musk, owner of X and prolific poster, now has a verified TikTok account with a single video.
“I mean, we gotta be excited about the future!” Musk enthuses in the video’s intro. “We’ve got to do things that make us want to live! You know? It cannot just be about problems every day.”
The rest of the video is a hopeful sizzle reel for Musk’s companies, including Neuralink, Tesla, The Boring Company and SpaceX. Social platform X is notably missing.
@elonmuskFirst TikTok. Ad astra 
The hopeful, upbeat video is a notable departure from his posts on X, where he spent most of the last day talking about the origins of slavery and proclaiming that his native South Africa is taking part in “Apartheid 2.0.”
Interestingly, he also reposted a message from X Head of Product , Nikita Bier, saying, “People should make more talking videos like this on X. Easy way to get millions of impressions with basically no followers.” Of course, these kinds of talking videos are also popular on TikTok — but that’s not what Musk did for his first video on the platform. His video is slick and appears corporate produced.
Why it matters: We don’t yet know what Musk’s goal is for joining TikTok. We can’t divine a whole strategy from a single video. But that video does give some clues: Musk offered a far more upbeat view of the world, focused on his companies rather than the divisive politics that have often distracted from the technological achievements he oversees. It could be a play to distance Musk from those politics and help him be seen once more as a visionary
At the same time, those efforts will never be successful if Musk continues to post (and repost) every thought that enters his head on X. Personal branding is all interconnected. If you’re a nice, positive person on one platform and a reactive person calling for “immediate execution” on another, the negative message is going to win out, no matter how inspirational the videos of rockets blasting into space are.
Musk’s branding is, of course, more extreme than most company leaders. But the point still stands: while positioning shouldn’t be identical across platforms, it should be complementary to them. The pieces all must seem similar enough that they’ve come from the same person, even if the exact phrasing and vibes are slightly different.
We’ll continue to see how Musk’s TikTok strategy unfolds — or if he turns over a new leaf on X.
Editor’s Top Reads:
- New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani marked his first 100 days in office with a “museum-style display” of his accomplishments in a factory-turned-concert venue, plus appearances by his mentor Bernie Sanders, a childcare advocate, and the city worker in charge of pothole repair, the New York Times reported. As Mamdani spoke, supporters waved signs reading “Pothole Politics” and “Childcare for All,” two of his signature policies. Mamdani focused on meat-and-potato politics, delivering rousing lines like, “Sidewalks will be clean, rats will go hungry, trash won’t know what hit it,” in addition to announcing new city-run grocery stores. It’s all a lot of hoopla to commemorate 14 weeks in office, but it shows an important part of PR of any kind: taking credit. If people don’t know what you’ve accomplished, it might as well not have happened. This is true for external PR, as well as ensuring internal stakeholders know about the good work you’ve done. Be your own best advocate in all aspects of your work.
- The hottest new marketing prospects aren’t Facebook Groups or bumping Discords: they’re in-person meetups like Rummikub clubs, dad groups and run clubs, the Wall Street Journal reports. Whole agencies are springing up to connect brands to these analog gatherings, where budgets often range from $10,000-$100,000. “Parents will ride for a product, they’ll ride for a brand, and they’ll ride for people that are truly invested in them,” said Joe Gonzales, who founded Brooklyn Stroll Club, which has partnered with BabyBjörn and Square. These in-person events might initially reach fewer people, but each person in that group has the potential to go out and become a booster for the brand. It builds a relationship in a way that can take much, much longer in the online sphere.
- IBM has paid $17 million to settle a suit from the United States Department of Justice alleging the company used diversity, equity and inclusion policies in a way that discriminated against groups, including white people and men. This is the first time a case brought by the Trump administration using an anti-fraud civil rights law has been settled. Notably, as part of the settlement, IBM did not admit wrongdoing. This case shows just how much has changed in the DEI space from just two years ago. Once-celebrated programs are now responsible for major payouts. Expect more companies to keep their heads down in this sphere — until the political climate changes again.
Allison Carter is editorial director of PR Daily and Ragan.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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