Elon Musk in a nutshell:

Strategy & Tools

Highlights

I'll highlight here most of Elon's marketing episodes, not correlated to his business (most of them), and not including his tweets:

• 2010 - Small cameo as himself in Iron Man 2 movie
  
  
• January 2015 - Guest appearance playing as himself in The Simpsons in the episode titled "The Musk Who Fell to Earth"
  
  
• November 2015 - Guest appearance in the episode of The Big Bang Theory
  
  
• 2016 - Guest appearance in several episodes of South Park, including the episode "Members Only"
  
  
• November 2017 - Guest appearance in The Big Bang Theory spin-off prequel series Young Sheldon
  
  
• February 6, 2018 - Elon launched a car (Tesla Roadster) into space along with his first Falcon Heavy rocket
  
  
• September 7, 2018 - Smoked weed while being on the Joe Rogan podcast
  
  
• February 2019 - Musk co-hosted PewDiePie's (Youtuber) show "Meme Review" with Justin Roiland (Rick and Morty's co-creator)
  
  
• April 2019 - Elon produced and rapped the song
  
  
• October 2019 - Guest appearance in the Rick and Morty episode as an alternate reality version of himself with tusks, known as "Elon Tusk"
  
  
• May 5, 2020 - He named his newborn kid "X Æ A-12 Musk"

Twitter
Elon Musk's Tweeter account is a perfect mixture of the inspiring tech entrepreneur, controversial man-child, internet troll, and meme page - many adult men's wildest dream.

His tweets are painfully authentic #nofilter

To prove his level of authenticity and "not give a f**k" approach to his tweeting, he has wiped off $14 billion from Tesla's value with one tweet.

Even though his tweets might sometimes hurt the value of his companies, in the long run, it's worth it. Elon plays the long game. 

Guest appearances/cameos
Superhero movies, geeky sitcoms, or cartoon comedies for adults, that's all fit his character, make his fans connect with him on a deeper level and love him even more.

Cool ventures/products
People don't value Elon Musk because he's controversial and loves memes. 

People worship him because he's one of the most ambitious, hard-working, futuristic guy on the planet and because he loves memes.

There is no Elon Musk without his crazy ambitious business ventures and sometimes meme-like products:

• Tesla - an American electric vehicle and clean energy company, with the goal to create affordable mass-market electric vehicles
  
  
• SpaceX - is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company, with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and colonization of Mars
  
  
• Neuralink - a neurotechnology start-up company, with the goal to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence
  
  
• SolarCity - develops and sells solar panels and solar roof tiles, with the goal to reduce the costs and improve reliability and functionality of solar energy
  
  
• Boring company - started as a Tweeted joke - a tunnel construction services company, with the goal of reducing traffic jams
• Boring Company's Flamethrower - started as a meme, ended up selling the whole stock within 2 days.
  
  
• OpenAI - a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company
  
  
• Hyperloop - concept for a high-speed train like transportation system incorporating reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on an air cushion
   
• Paypal - online financial services and e-mail payment company
  
  
• Zip2 - provided and licensed online city guide software to newspapers

There's also another reason why people love those companies so much.
Every single one of them has a very good reason to exist.

While for most of those ventures the main goal to exist is to improve people's lives, for others (flamethrower) is just for the joke's sake.  

This playful, almost game-like approach to building businesses and products makes Elon even more likable.

Personal branding
World-changing visionary, work ethic titan, meme enthusiast, geek, and eccentric billionaire. That's who Elon Musk is. Or at least that's how he portrays himself as.

People have fallen in love with the creator and the reason for companies being created. Later on, they have also fallen in love with the products.

Authenticity + Integrity = Credibility

This tweet wiped off $14B from Tesla valuation

Psychology

Controversy
Controversy = free publicity

Controversy in marketing is tricky. 
If done correctly, it can be a great way to get you noticed.
However, if it backfires, it can do more harm than good. 

Whether Elon smokes weed on a podcast, sells flamethrowers, raps a song, or launch a car into space, people go wild - when you do this kind of things, you don't need ads to sell your products.

If you want to be recognizable, you can’t play it safe. Elon understands that.  

Authenticity
We connect with other people by being authentic and vulnerable. 

We judge a person's authenticity by the passion and commitment they have for what they say and do.

People connect with Musk because he's true to himself, authentic and committed to his goals.

Window of Opportunity

Use personal branding to build & boost your business.

Create your personal brand on Twitter, Instagram, or other social media platform that works best for you.

The best personal brands strategies: 

• Build your authority and credibility
• Give away great content for free
• Focus on a very specific area of expertise
• Be transparent, vulnerable, and trustworthy
• Be consistent

Which brand archetype do you want to be?