He just joined Twitter, but President Barack Obama is proving quite popular.
His account @POTUS gained over a million followers in under five hours, giving him the world record for the most Twitter followers in the shortest time period, according to Guinness World Records.
Guinness Book of World Records (@GWR) names @POTUS fastest-growing @Twitter account. http://t.co/jKYUBgzPye pic.twitter.com/3iICyE2MIw
— Twitter Government (@TwitterGov) May 19, 2015
He’s only tweeted four times since Monday, but he’s already logged 2.28 million followers as of this writing. His most recent tweet below:
An honor to address the Coast Guard class of 2015. Confident they'll help us meet big challenges like climate change. pic.twitter.com/1z4fteA1YJ
— President Obama (@POTUS44) May 20, 2015
As Guinness points out, @BarackObama has nearly 60 million followers. The @POTUS account is “associated with the presidential office — or as Obama puts it: ‘The handle comes with the house,’ ” in answer to former POTUS Bill Clinton’s Twitter query below:
Welcome to @Twitter, @POTUS! One question: Does that username stay with the office? #askingforafriend
— Bill Clinton (@billclinton) May 18, 2015
The former record holder for the most followers gained in the shortest time period was none other than Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr. In April 2014, he reached a million followers in a little over 23 hours.
Twitter actually released a diagram showing how quickly the world reacted to @POTUS, and opting in to follow Obama here.
How conversation about @POTUS joining Twitter spread around the globe: https://t.co/ePwos3Ysgv. pic.twitter.com/Mxwtr6SEnX
— Twitter Government (@TwitterGov) May 18, 2015