Getting 1 Million followers on Twitter is certainly a distant dream for any casual internet user but it is definitely a piece of cake for a celebrity or a top notch brand. This was proved yet again when world’s most powerful personality and President of the United States, Barack Obama sent his first tweet from @POTUS, the official U.S. President’s Twitter account on May 18, 2015. In just less than 5 hours, President Barack Obama’s new @POTUS account crossed the 1 Million followers mark creating a buzz all over the social media.
Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.
— President Obama (@POTUS) May 18, 2015
Some of the notable people among the 1 Million followers included the first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, in addition to other cabinet officials and their various departments. Surprisingly, Hillary Clinton who is running for President in the upcoming election was not among the followers at the time of writing this post.
On the other hand, Obama follows only 65 users on Twitter including his predecessors George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton along with some sports accounts of Chicago Bulls, Chicago Bears, Chicago White Sox, and Chicago Blackhawks in addition to few educational accounts like Occidental college, Harvard University and Columbia University.
Reaching 1 Million followers count is not a great deal for a huge personality like Barack Obama given the fact that his @BarackObama account on Twitter, managed by his staff, already earned more than 59.3 million followers. However, the speed at which @POTUS earned 1 Million followers shows the immense popularity of the 44th President of the United States of America across the globe.
Yeah! It’s a World Record
The latest addition in the universe of Twitter also made some world records breaking the previous ones. Guinness Book of World Records which is known to list down all the amazing feats and records set by people across the globe informed on its website on Tuesday that President Obama’s new Twitter handle has set some amazing records on the social network on the day it was launched.
@POTUS becomes the first Twitter account to reach 1 Million followers by marking the feat in just 5 hours, a record previously held by Robert Downey Jr.’s twitter handle when the Ironman prodigy achieved the feat in just 23 hours and 22 minutes back in April 2014.
To achieve this feat in record time, President Obama’s official twitter account gained followers at a speed of 1,213 followers per minute according to Forbes. Monitoring the account for every minute starting from 12 p.m. ET on Monday till the same time on Tuesday, Forbes monitored the rise in the number of followers on @POTUS, which then had already crossed the 1,50,000 followers mark and ended up with 1.88 Million followers by 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
If that wasn’t enough, President Obama’s official twitter account recorded a remarkable feat of 14,971 followers in just a minute at one time during this period. The followers per minute rate also rose up to 3,314 followers between noon and until the time by which he gained his 1-millionth follower at around 4.15 p.m. on Monday.
It wasn’t all statistics, records and number games on Twitter when President Obama officially made his debut on the Social Network. There was a bit of entertainment and leg pulling between the current and former U.S. Presidents that stole the show.
The Trash Talk between the Current and Former President
Although, Barack Obama has been engaging on Twitter through @BarackObama handle since 2007, @POTUS is created for the sitting-President of the United States and would be passed on to the next President when Mr. Barack Obama leaves the chair.
This was made clear by Mr. Barack Obama himself when he was asked by the former U.S. President Bill Clinton if the username stay with the office adding a hashtag mentioning “Asking For a Friend”. No wild guesses for who that friend is !
To which the current U.S. President replied that the handle comes with the house. He further asked Mr. Clinton on a sarcastic note if he knew someone interested in the handle @FLOTUS which again without any wild guesses stands for “First Lady Of The United States” in reference to Hillary Clinton who is running for the President in the upcoming election.
Good question, @billclinton. The handle comes with the house. Know anyone interested in @FLOTUS?
— President Obama (@POTUS) May 18, 2015
It was also stated through a blog post from the official website of White House that @POTUS is launched with an intention to serve a new way for the U.S. President to engage directly with the citizens of the country where he would be sending tweets personally. Unlike his another twitter handle @BarackObama, managed by his staff, the official twitter account of U.S. President would see more involvement from the President himself.
