So this happened…
Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.
— President Obama (@POTUS) May 18, 2015
Former White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer thinks this is big news….
This is a much bigger deal than it may seem. Changing how President’s will communicate for the foreseeable future https://t.co/zntfABtw8l — Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) May 18, 2015
I think Mr. Pfeiffer is right. However, I expect that future Presidents, even Obama, will not be doing the actual twittering. That will be press staff stuff. Anyway, then this happened….
Welcome to @Twitter, @POTUS! One question: Does that username stay with the office? #askingforafriend — Bill Clinton (@billclinton) May 18, 2015
Good question, @billclinton. The handle comes with the house. Know anyone interested in @FLOTUS? — President Obama (@POTUS) May 18, 2015
President Obama broke the Guinness world record for the “fastest time to reach 1 million followers on Twitter.” The account reached 1 million followers within five hours of its launch, according to Guinness World Records. The record was previously held by actor Robert Downey Jr., who reached 1 million followers in a little less than 24 hours after joining Twitter in April 2014.
This awesome time-lapse graphic from Twitter shows just how quickly the president amassed followers from around the world.
Or you can look at this…
As of this writing (2015/05/20-10:30amEST), Obama has 2.18 million followers.