Tesla’s total loss accumulation in the year 2018 amounting to 717 million dollars was offset by a tweet from Elon Musk. Musk claimed that he was considering taking Tesla private at a price of 420 dollars with Funding Secured (Puri, Varde, Du & de Melo, 2018). After Elon’s tweet, the company’s market value went up by 900 million dollars in just a few hours (Huang & Yeo, 2018). As surprising as the developments were and the lack of details concerning the entities expected to give the required amount of financing and the terms required, the tweets were considered as declarative statements from the chief executive officer (CEO) of a publicly traded company meaning that they could be taken seriously.
In its 2013 report, the US Securities and Exchange Commission declared that publicly traded organizations can be able to make key business announcements, including the plans to make their company private, on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. (Huang & Yeo, 2018). The announcements could be excused as long as the investors remain aware of the platforms that are used for disseminating such information. The rule made by SEC was part of an extension of the 2008 ruling by the US SEC allowing public organizations to make crucial declarations to investors (Puri, Varde, Du & de Melo, 2018). However, the ‘fund secured’ section of the tweet made Musk land in trouble because if the money claimed did not follow as Tesla went private, then he would face civil charges for manipulating the stock prices of Tesla by spreading misleading information to the investors.
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The SEC later charged Musk for the ‘fund secured’ section of his tweet leading him to pay a fine of 20 million dollars (Puri, Varde, Du & de Melo, 2018). Additionally, Musk was also removed as the head of the Tesla board leading the stakeholders to question the future and profitability of the organization. The action plan would thus repair Elon Musk’s influence thereby persuading the stakeholders and the customers to believe that his erratic motives and behavior were not detrimental to the company.
Increasing Followers and Traffic of Elon Musk’s Social Media
The first step in the action plan is trying to frame a new narrative to paint Elon Musk in a positive light. Elon Musk, the CEO of the private space company, Space X and Tesla, has been acclaimed as the real-life inspiration behind the character of Tony Stark in the Iron Man an Avengers movie franchise (Diamond Jr, 2018). Therefore, in trying to rebuild Musk’s reputation, it would be prudent to write posts about him with irresistible headlines. Headlines are the most important part of the content written on social media due to the plummeting attention spans among millennials. Without a compelling headline, even the most detailed and informative posts would go unread. Therefore, the first step would be to write indelible social media posts and stories about Elon and link them to the Tony Stark character in the Iron Man Avengers movie franchise. The pop culture reference would get most social media users intrigued by Elon Musk leading them to delve into his life and try to draw comparisons between him and Tony Stark.
Elon Musk's social media followers can be asked to share posts about him to have more users engage with his posts and social media profiles. Hashtags would be created to discuss the remarkable things that Elon Musk is doing and the interesting things about his life. Aside from the organic growth achieved by sharing of posts about Elon Musk, paid social media advertising can also be used to increase traffic to Elon Musk’s social media pages. Display advertisements usually appear on the social media users’ news fed section prompting them to click links that lead them back to Elon Musk’s page.
The social media engagement would frame a new narrative about Elon Musk as most people would be talking positively about him. The upcoming Avengers Endgame, which appears to be the final movie in the Avengers movie franchise has attracted much attention and hype online. Therefore, it would be prudent to link Elon Musk to the Tony Stark character to re-direct the millions of fans back to Elon’s social media pages. On Elon’s social media, there should be several posts about his numerous achievements thus helping to create a new narrative about him. Moreover, Elon Musk’s social media page should be filled with aesthetic images that have his followers admire his billionaire lifestyle. The best way to retain new followers would be to incorporate a visual appeal to show the flashy life of Elon akin to that of Tony Stark in the Iron Man and Avengers movie franchise.
Reach Out to More Famous Bloggers, Influencers, and Conservative News Outlets
After targeting social media users, the next step would be to reach out to the mass market. First, famous bloggers and Conservative News Outlets would be approached to write about Elon Musk come up, his personality traits, and the various achievements made so far. Since writing purely about Elon’s merits would seem like a cheap ploy to paint him in a positive light, it would be prudent to include his flaws and shortcomings. Famous bloggers and Conservative News Outlets would thus bring attention to Elon Musk and then try to change the public’s perception of him. At this point, it would be prudent to include the 2013 report by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which it declared that publicly traded organizations can be able to make key business announcements, including the plans to make their company private, on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
The impulsive comment of Elon Musk can thus be excused because he used his social media platform to make information public to investors. Aside from trying to assert Elon’s innocence, it would be prudent to include the remarkable things that Elon Musk is trying to achieve. For instance, Elon is trying to build the Gigafactory One in Nevada and the Chinese Gigafactory enabling Tesla to penetrate the lucrative Chinese market. Additionally, Musk’s vision to make life multi-planetary by moving man to the planet Mars. Elon’s ambitions seem farfetched but intriguing to the average American as the space race would see several countries to establish new fronts in space.
Increase the Number of Positive News
The frequency of positive news should be increased for consistency thus allowing more social media users to get acquainted with Elon Musk. Some of their positive traits of Musk include his relentlessness as he is exceptionally motivated and self-driven despite the several failed attempts of his SpaceX rockets and Tesla Motors (Diamond Jr, 2018). Elon is a serial entrepreneur who has multiple ventures such as Zip2, a predecessor of Google maps, PayPal, an online banking service, and Solar City, where he plans to popularize renewable energy (Diamond Jr, 2018). Most importantly, it would be important for the social media influencers reached out to, to spark online conversations about Musk’s work ethic as he does not believe in any shortcut to success and is big on work productivity.
Additionally, Musk is a visionary and believes in hiring fresh and young talents and would thus appeal to the youth, especially the fresh graduates who feel that they have much to offer (Diamond Jr, 2018). The series of positive news would thus help the public to forget the negative aspects and side of Elon Musk and the infamous tweets that landed him in trouble in the first place. Moreover, the series of positive tweets would ensure that Elon remains a sensation and an icon because of the positivity that he brings to the world rather than the infamy that he has been associated with because of an impulsive tweet.
The Final Step would be to Work on Elon Musk as an Individual
Elon Musk would not need a business advisor to lead him in the right way. For instance, all of his tweets should be reviewed by his team to ensure that they remain politically correct. Elon Musk should make a mature public apology for the infamous tweet and strive to connect more with his audience and fans on a positive note. Additionally, Elon should take up more television interviews to help keep his brand alive and ensure the world sees his potential and the great things that he is yet to offer.
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