President Donald Trump's ability to move stocks and markets with his Twitter posts is well known, but now he may be having an impact on Twitter itself.
Trump's use of the 140-character messaging service at all hours of the day to bypass the traditional media is giving people a reason to learn how to use the platform, creating "a second chance to attract and retain users," investment firm BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield wrote on Wednesday in a research note to clients.
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At the same time, the focus on Trump's tweets has turned the media into "a giant marketing vehicle" for the company, he wrote.
Greenfield, who upgraded Twitter's stock to buy from neutral, wrote that there has been a "meaningful uptick" in downloads of the Twitter app on iOS devices in the USÂ this year and cited a CivicScience survey that shows an increase in daily usage.
He also noted that a rebound in user growth and engagement could reignite Twitter takeover speculation.
"Not only is President Trump actively using Twitter to communicate directly with the American people, his tweets are impacting consumers all around the world," Greenfield wrote in the note.
"While we believe this is clearly helping drive users of the Twitter platform, it is the ability for consumers to react in real-time to these tweets that is driving engagement higher."
Trump has posted 11 tweets from his personal account within the past 24 hours alone.
![The constant tweets by US President Trump to bypass traditional media have helped boost Twitter's user numbers.](/web/20170209024007im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/0/h/3/2/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu8qqe.png/1486599942132.jpg)
Using the social media platform, he vented anger at the Democrats for delaying his cabinet appointments and US department store chain Nordstrom for its decision to drop his daughter Ivanka's fashion brand, published polls that appear to back his border control and "extreme vetting" agenda and lashed out at traditional news organisations.
'Trump administration seen as more truthful than news media'https://t.co/6LmsR5JOSW
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017
Trump's followers on Twitter have increased to 24.2 million from 18.6 million at the beginning of the year, even though Twitter executives have said that Trump's Twitter-focused campaign had no noticeable impact on user growth or time spent on the site.
The stock rose as much as 2.8 percent overnight, and is little changed since the election. Twitter is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on Thursday morning US time.
Bloomberg/BusinessDay
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