Najib's tweets from Twitter HQ catch 1.7m followers by surprise

Najib's tweets from Twitter HQ catch 1.7m followers by surprise
Business & Markets 2013
Written by Bernama
Tuesday, 24 September 2013 12:18

SAN FRANCISCO (Sept 24): "Meeting Twitter CEO@dickc at TwitterHQ" and "Great Session at Twitter HQ. A wonderful platform to engage with Malaysians n the Global Community".

Those were the two tweets posted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib TunRazak on his Twitter account @NajibRazak from Twitter Headquarters in Market Street here, Monday.

Najib, who also appended a picture of him shaking hands with Twitter chief executive officer Dick Costolo to one of the tweets, posted the tweets on his own using his smartphone, witnessed by Costolo.

The picture shows Najib and Costolo shaking hands with the blue Twitter's corporate logo printed on a bunting in the background.

Earlier, Najib arrived at the Twitter headquarters before he was taken for a tour of the office, including the cafeteria, by Twitter executives.

He then had a meeting with Costolo and his senior management team, according to a statement issued by the Malaysian Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) here.

Accompanying Najib on the visit were Communication and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek, Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, officials and CEOs of several government-linked companies.

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read tweets which are text messages limited to 140 characters.

The service was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched in July 2006. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity and passed 500 million users in 2012 records 340 million tweets per day and is in the world's top 10 social networking sites.

Najib is among the few world leaders who is said to be most active in tweeting.

"I use Twitter to connect to my fellow Malaysians at home and abroad.

"Understanding the rakyat's needs and sentiments helps my team and I formulate better policies to address the concerns of all Malaysians," Najib was quoted by MDeC as saying at the meeting.

Najib's interest in how Big Data could be used to promote sustainability and inclusiveness amongst Malaysians prompted the working visit to Twitter.

His visit to Twitter headquarters in Market Street was hosted by Costolo, and included briefings on the impact of social media on government service delivery, social media and data analytic, and Twitter and social entrepreneurship.

The visit was organised by MDeC, the driver of Malaysia's Digital Economy Initiative, Digital Malaysia.

The prime minister was also briefed on the use of Twitter for disaster relief as well as track-and-predict purposes, the statement added.

Najib was also interested in the use of the social media to engage Southeast Asian citizens as Malaysia becomes the first chair of the new Asean community in 2015.

The Malaysian discussion at Twitter also touched on the potential role of the social media giant in MSC Malaysia's Silicon Valley Connect initiative and the involvement of Malaysian companies in Twitter's Certified Partner Programme.

Najib, who currently has the highest Tweet following in Malaysia, reached out to his 1.7 million followers by sending out the Tweets from the Twitter Headquarters at the end of his visit.

The two tweets caught his followers, Malaysians and foreigners alike, by surprise.

u can smell something here if you know what i mean with the upcoming listing of twitter soon