The Truth about Truth Social : Why Donald Trump’s Social Media App is a Marketing Genius but a UX Disaster

Updated on :October 19, 2023
By :Darren Mathew

Donald Trump is yet again in the news, but this time for a social media app his new company TMTG (Trump Media & Technology Group) launched a few days back. When we think about competing with the Tech Giants, someone like a twenty-something silicon valley nerd, straight out of Harvard, driven to turn around the tech industry, comes to mind. Rarely, if ever, do we imagine a former President launching a social media app!

Yet, on 21st February 2022, TMTG launched its first Social Media app, Truth Social. The app's launch comes around a year after Trump's social media ban post the Capitol Hill incident. Soon after its launch, Truth social made it to the #1 spot on the app store. If anything, the app's popularity is an indicator of the brilliant marketing backing the app's success. But despite all the hype and support, the app had a fairly 'bumpy' start to say the least. On that note, let's dive further into Truth Social, understanding where it stands as a potential competitor for Big tech platforms as well as what app developers should (and shouldn't) emulate within their own projects.

What is Truth Social?

Trump's Social Media is closely modeled on Twitter, to the point where some are calling it a Twitter clone. That isn't just because Twitter was Trump's favorite platform of the bunch, but also because Truth Social is based on Mastodon, a free and open-source alternative to Twitter. Instead of Tweets & Re-tweets, Truth social allows you to share 'Truths' & 'Re-truths.' 

Despite the eerie similarities between the two platforms, it would be a mistake to assume that Twitter and Truth Social would be direct competitors. Contrary to Trump's earlier declaration that the app would 'Stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech,' It's evident that Trump's app is designed primarily for his right-winged supporters as opposed to a more general audience. While free-speech-centric, right-winded social media apps have now existed for a while, they are in no way a serious threat to mainstream social media, simply because the intent and target audience for the two groups are completely different. 
 

That said, Truth Social's biggest USP so far is its promise of defending free speech. Their website states that they are a 'social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology.' And so far, the messaging has worked. As mentioned, Truth Social secured the top spot on the Apple app store for downloads within a day of being released. Having pulled in half a million users within its first 48 hours is certainly a testament to the app's popularity, but buried below the app's initial success are blunders and mistakes that could spell disaster for the app's future. Trump's Truth social is a textbook case study for attracting users with excellent marketing. But at the same time, it's a cautionary example that underscores the fact that mobile apps need to prioritize user experience above all else to beat the fierce competition out there. 

Unraveling Truth Social’s Genius Marketing Strategy

Truth Social’s marketing success can be mainly attributed to their strong messaging around which they built a narrative to engage their target community. Let's break down their formula in greater detail:

‘Your favourite President will see you soon’ 

That was Donald Trump's first post on Truth Social, and anyone reading it can sense the strong messaging involved here. Donald Trump is really good at marketing himself using the power of narrative-building. We can see this in action in the case of Truth Social.

Trump Tweet

Source: Twitter

Building a Narrative

When banned across mainstream social media, Trump used it as an opportunity to create a narrative around free speech. He tapped into a large audience that stood against Big-Tech censorship and engaged them with the promise of building a platform that would defend their free speech. 

Mobile app development companies looking for similar results can take a lesson or two from TMTG's handbook here. To generate momentum for their apps, companies need to clarify what they can offer and why their users must care. They need to identify their user's biggest pain points (in Truth Social's case, it was censorship by Big Tech) and offer a solution. But, to make the most impact, the solution needs to be wrapped in a narrative, one that their audience deeply cares about. 

While Trump's messaging may be controversial and politically loaded, developers need not go to such extremes to get their points across. Using a mix of paid and organic marketing across multiple platforms can help engage any app's target audience as long as it builds and delivers around a narrative its community cares about.

Engaging a Community

Owing to his political history, Trump already had a massive following to which he could promote his app. Though replicating Truth Social's success might be next to impossible for regular developers (simply because most of us haven't been Presidents), building a thriving community around your app is still very much possible. 

App-based community building is all about communicating beyond business interactions and allowing our users to know you as a brand. You want to express yourself as a brand that deeply cares about its users and empowers them to speak for your brand. Developers can achieve this by building an app that adds great value to their users and by communicating their app's value via clear and precise value propositions.

But building a great mobile app that works well is only a part of the equation. In order to turn your users into loyal followers, app developers need to empower them to speak and promote their brand. Doing so allows the users to feel like they are a part of the app community, and we go from having to market our app to our users, to users promoting the apps themselves. User-driven marketing is thus at the heart of community building, and this is something we can see a lot in the case of Truth social.


Truth Social tweet

Source: Twitter
 

Delivering a Strong Message

The final marketing lesson coming from Truth Social can be found in how the app is branded. Let's compare it with Twitter once again to understand this. While excellent at branding itself, the word 'Twitter' means nothing on its own if the platform doesn't exist. On the other hand, the word 'Truth' obviously means a lot. It invokes a strong reaction within its users and communicates what the developers want them to think about the platform. 

This is a great way of engaging users and boosting acquisition. Everything from the app's name to its branding communicates something, and developers need to leverage this opportunity to give out the type of messaging they want their app to represent.


Branding quote

Truth Social’s Major UX Disasters and How to Avoid Them

Despite Truth Social’s marketing success, the app’s user experience proved to be a massive disaster. From loading errors to long waitlists, the app made some serious UX mistakes that every app must avoid at all costs. Let’s break these down in further detail:   

‘Your waitlist number is as below’ 

Reads the screen on Truth Social, once users successfully create an account. Yes, despite the app being out for around a week, thousands (maybe even a million by now) of registered users didn't have access to Truth Social. What's worse is that the account registration process itself was riddled with numerous bugs and errors. All in all, Truth Social's UX is terrible at places, which is why it can be a good talking point for discussing some of the major app development mistakes companies should avoid at all times. 

Security Risks

Security has been a major issue for mobile apps since the pandemic. Businesses are at an all-time high risk of cyber-attacks these days, especially tech businesses like social media companies that deal with loads of user data. And Truth Social has already suffered its first wave of cyberattacks. 

Within a mere two hours of being announced, and this was back in October 2021, hackers gained access to an unreleased, private version of the app. They created fake accounts of some major right-winged leaders, including Trump himself, just to illustrate how vulnerable the app was back then. While these early attacks have been dealt with, many still believe that Truth Social will be a hot target for hackers. The app is based on open source mastodon code—some prior apps based on the same were hacked to death with little to no safety measures in place so far.


Truth social hacked tweet

Source: Twitter

Protecting your user's data is among the top priorities for any business, and failing to do so is a sure-shot way to tank your app's success. Rightly so, experts have pointed out the security risks with Truth Socal and are warning users against joining the platform. Most businesses would lose a significant chunk of their user base with such a reputation, so here is what companies need to do to ensure their app's security:

  • Implement clean code: You want to ensure your code isn't lackluster or riddled with bugs that can potentially allow attackers to breach their way in. This goes without saying, obviously, but watching well-funded projects like Truth Social skipping such obvious precautions is alarming, to say the least. 
  • Stronger authentication: It is incredibly important to protect user credentials if you are dealing with user registrations and logins. Enable Multi-factor or at least two-factor authentication to maximize security.
  • API and encryption: Developers need to ensure they implement secure and certified APIs that hackers can't abuse. On top of that, encryption for sensitive data is highly recommended to defend against breaches and man-in-the-middle attacks.
  • Appoint dedicated security personnel: And finally, having a dedicated team of professionals testing and improving your app's security can go a very long way with building a safe app.

Poor Onboarding Experience 

Another major mistake Truth Social is guilty of is their poor onboarding experience. After the app's launch, as users tried signing up for the app, hundreds of them encountered several error messages that made the entire experience unpleasant. First, there was either the classic ‘404 page not found' or ‘405 not allowed' error, and those that did get started with the sign-up process were occasionally hit with the 'Something went wrong, please try again.'

Even when users successfully managed to create an account, they weren't able to use the app. Instead, they were placed on a seemingly long waitlist that, even more than a week now, still hasn't moved further. Needless to say, the excitement users had for signing up on the platform slowly fizzled out, given the fact they weren't even allowed on board. 

The truth is, Truth Social was at a very early stage, almost like in Beta when released. And the sudden spike in sign-ups overwhelmed the platform. To manage the high number of sign-ups, the team implemented a waitlist, which grew as long as half a million users in a matter of a few days. Consequently, users were not happy about being so far behind on a list that barely moved in days, and many expressed their dissatisfaction about the same on Twitter.


Truth Social waiting tweet

Source: Twitter

The takeaway here though, is that app development companies need to thoroughly test out their apps before rolling them out into the market and be ready to scale rapidly if the need arises. Bugs and errors can seriously ruin customer experience, especially at the onboarding stage; devs therefore, need to be extra cautious of the product they put out. 

According to Statista, the average user acquisition cost to get a user registered for a given app can be as high as 3.52$. To make the most out of such investments then, apps must provide a pleasant onboarding experience. And if onboarding and acquisitions are such expensive affairs, why risk a waitlist that can cause onboard customers to lose interest?

Below are some tips to ensure your app's onboarding experience is as smooth as possible:

Ensure your app works as intended:  Make sure your app works fine before publishing! Especially the onboarding funnel, since that's the first point of contact between you and your customers. Run the app through multiple rounds of rigorous testing; bugs are inevitable but launching without them doesn't need to be. 

Quick and easy sign-up: As mentioned, getting users to download and sign-up for your app can be a massive challenge. Therefore, your sign-up process needs to be as simple and easy as possible. Eliminate any extra clutter from your sign-up page and only ask for relevant information. 

Highlight important features: Though most apps these days are designed to be highly intuitive, users might still be confused about how to access your app's core features. Ensure you highlight your app's main functionalities (subtly) so your users aren't lost navigating the application.

Engage, but don't overwhelm: A good onboarding experience doesn't just leave the user informed but also engaged. You want your users to perform certain actions within your application naturally. This is typically achieved by placing CTAs or prompts within your app. But be cautious and don't overwhelm them with too much information or multiple CTAs.

Onboarding experience

Bias Towards a Single Platform

Truth Social has only been announced for iOS so far. For the android users who would like to hop on board, the app simply doesn’t exist. Think of it in terms of numbers, if even 1% of american android users are interested in Trump’s app, that’s 1.3 million users Truth Social is missing out on for the moment simply by not having an android version. Though it isn't uncommon to see companies leading their product launch with their iOS app while the android version follows months later, it is usually preferred that developers tap into both markets at the same time. 
 

As a developer it's easy to get lost in the debate, you need to weigh the cost and time of building two apps against the chance of capturing the market on both major platforms. The choice isn’t as simple as it may seem, so here are some tips to help you choose better:

  • If you wish to make a free-to-use, mass-market app, then fetching in as many users as possible should be your primary goal. You'll have to launch on multiple platforms, preferably at once, to establish yourself as the dominant player in your niche. Building native apps for one platform at a time increases your time to market.
  • If you wish to build a premium app catering to high-paying users, sticking simply to an iOS version for the first few months might be worth it. Here your goal isn’t to get as many users onboard as possible, but rather to cater to a specific demographic. Conduct thorough market research to figure out if such an approach is best suited for your app.
  • And finally, a balanced approach is to go the cross-platform route. Here is where you build an MVP or a Beta version for multiple platforms using cross-platform development. This allows you to capture the entirety of the market as well as validate your app idea at a reasonable cost. As your app grows, you can work on developing separate native versions for your app if you feel the need. However, cross platform development provides enough functionality for most add development projects out there. 

Regardless of the path you take, unlike Truth Social, make sure your app is ready to scale once deployed. Ensure that your target audience doesn't feel alienated by reaching out to them on their preferred platform.

To Conclude

Donald Trump's Truth Social is a mixed bag of success and blunders that, one way or another, will be in the headlines for quite some time now. Whether or not Truth Social will make it big in the social media world remains to be seen, but in the meantime, we can still learn from what the app gets right and avoid for ourselves the mistakes it makes. 


The mobile world is highly competitive, and developing an app isn't as easy, even for well-funded studios like TMTG. Truth Social is an excellent case study of an application that excels at a particular aspect of app development but fails miserably at another. It is great at its app marketing strategy but fails to recognize the importance of a good UI & UX for a given mobile app.

Darren Mathew
Darren Mathew

Darren is a writer passionate about Technology, Business, and the evolving relationship between the two. He often tries to bring intriguing perspectives to otherwise familiar ideas, striving to help his audience reimagine the ever-changing tech landscape. He works as a blogger and content marketeer at GoodFirms—a leading review and rating platform built to help brands pick the right service providers for them.

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