Trump and Twitter: COO 'Loves' President Uses Platform To Tweet

Twitter COO Anthony Noto said in an interview with CNBC Thursday the company “loves” President Donald Trump’s use of the social media network.

"We love that he's using the platform," Noto said. "He's built greater awareness of the platform and the power of the platform."

Trump has overwhelmingly used Twitter to communicate with his 25 million followers on his personal account and through the POTUS account, in which he has 15.4 million followers.

Using algorithms, Twitter is helping keep Trump’s tweets and other news on top of users’ timelines, Noto said.

"Two years ago, if President Trump tweeted at 3 a.m. on the East Coast and you woke up at 6 a.m. on the West Coast, you would never see that tweet — it would be at the bottom of your timeline," Noto said. "Today that's injected to the top based on your profile and your interests and machine learning, and so you can see that tweet today."

The company hopes to lead among other platforms when it comes to news and events. Trump’s tweets are helping fuel discussions and debates on the platform, especially since Twitter is Trump’s favored platform to communicate.

"That's great for us being able to show what's happening in the world and better than everyone else," said Noto.

However, Twitter’s recent fourth quarter earnings report shows that despite the amount of attention Trump’s tweets get, the company struggled to turn it into higher user growth. Twitter’s user base only grew by two million users in Q4 2016. The figures put Twitter behind other platforms like Facebook, which added 72 million active users in the fourth quarter. After Twitter Q4 report was released Feb. 9, the company’s stocks plunged.

Noto said ad budgets allotted six months ago have not taken into account Twitter's user growth and engagement.

"We do face challenges and we do think revenue's going to lag audience growth in addition to the fact that we have to prove return on investment is better, which it is," he said. "We also have to make sure we're putting the right products in front of advertisers.”

Noto said the company’s ad sales teams are not taking advantage of the president’s posts by reaching out to brands relevant to the tweets, adding there’s “not a fire drill at Twitter" when Trump tweets.