Out of everyone to helm Twitter as CEO, Elon Musk is by far the most active on the platform.
Musk engages with users on a daily basis, even replying to tweets from accounts with few followers.
These are some common phrases and themes found in his replies.
If there's one thing you can give Elon Musk credit for as the CEO of Twitter, it's that he uses the service far more than any of its leaders to come before. Historically, a frequent criticism about Twitter leadership — including its C-suite executives and board members — was that they didn't tweetvery often.
Musk is much more freewheeling on the social network, which has made him likeable to some but has also had disastrous results. Musk is fighting a legal battle over a tweet he sent in 2018 in which he claimed to have secured funding to take one of his companies, Tesla, private at a price of $420 a share. Plaintiffs say they lost money after buying stock on the announcement before word came out that the deal was still in discussion and not finalized.
Advertisers have also been concerned about their brands appearing on the platform as Musk loosens up content moderation, with fourth-quarter revenue down 35%, The Information reported.
In using Twitter, Musk is unusual among major leaders in another way: He often tweets in response to regular users who don't have very many followers.
Insider took samplings of Musk's replies between early 2020 and the start of 2023 and searched them for words and phrases that appeared often. Some patterns emerged in the ways in which Musk replied to others. Below are five common themes found in his replies.
Population collapseMusk has long stated he is concerned about population collapse globally.
Twitter/@elonmusk
Musk has frequentlysaid that the shared mission of all his companies is to advance humanity, be it by reducing emissions in the atmosphere through Tesla or expanding civilization into the stars through SpaceX.
He has also used his replies to highlight his concerns about a societal collapse arising from a declining population.
Despite conceiving most of his children through fertility treatment, Musk cut fertility benefits at Twitter following his acquisition. According to emails seen by Insider, Twitter informed employees late last year that a benefit covering up to $80,000 in lifetime costs related to various fertility-related needs and treatments, along with the costs of adopting children, was being reduced to a maximum of $40,000.
????????Musk frequently uses emojis in his replies on Twitter.
Twitter/@elonmusk
Another Musk-favorite reply uses simple emojis — specifically, the "rolling on the floor laughing" emoji and the "100" symbol. He employs them frequently in response to tweets he finds funny and sometimes to dismiss detractors.
Another standby Musk response is one word: "interesting" or "true." He often uses these to amplify the exposure of tweets in support of his companies or topics of interest to him, such as politics.
Musk has said he's a big fan of citizen journalism and frequently replies to fans of his who share their own reporting on his companies, such @BillyM2K and the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley group.
He has in the past offered interviews to people and outlets favorable to his companies, including one that ran for more than an hour and included Musk saying that the future of Tesla relied on making its self-driving technology work.
Fighting media or governmentMusk frequently takes to Twitter to criticize government and the media.
Twitter/@elonmusk
Musk frequently spars with the media and government agencies, and he complains about them on Twitter.
Most recently, he suggested that Twitter was pressured under prior leadership to take down content at the behest of President Joe Biden's campaign. Biden was not yet president nor serving in any office of government at the time, and the campaign was requesting illegal posts be removed, so legal experts have pointed out this issue is not related to the Constitution.
