 "Manchester United joins the Twitter club; scores over 150,000 followers in three hours")
Guess who has finally joined the 140 characters club? Premier League champions Manchester United finally have an official account on Twitter. The team now also has an official account on Sina Weibo.
The Red Devils had been conspicuous by their absence on most social networking websites for a while. The team already has a verified page on Facebook that is home to over 34 million fans. As expected, the account has followed some United players such as Robin van Persie, David De Gea, Tom Cleverley and Shinji Kagawa. Star player Wayne Rooney was one of the first players to be followed, but the forward, who is said to be on his way out of Old Trafford, has not tweeted since June 21 and hasn’t followed the official team account back. This, after Rooney had deleted the words ‘Manchester United player’ from his Twitter bio in May.
The club previously had a press office account @MU_Spokesperson , that fans turned to on Twitter to get announcements and statements. Now, the team will also be using the @ManUtd handle to give fans a chance to interact with the club. A statement on the Twitter foray says that the page will let users experience “iconic artwork, behind-the-scenes footage and exclusive content”. Rolling out first in English, the club has promised accounts in other languages soon.
The club sent out its first tweet at 1PM IST, sending Twitter into a tizzy. The account garnered over 118,000 followers in just over an hour. At the time of publishing, the numbers have shot well above 150,000 in less than three hours since launch. The club also tweeted pictures of The United Trinity – Bobby Charlton, George Best and Denis Law – as well as a picture of the new boss David Moyes.
ManUtd on Twitter!
The English club also signed up for an account on Sina Weibo, one of the most popular social networking websites in China. The account will be providing information regarding the team in Mandarin_. “Every month there are over five million Manchester United related social media posts and the level of engagement we have with our fans via social media is amongst the highest of all top global brands,”_ said Richard Arnold, Group Managing Director at Manchester United_. “I look forward to these new ventures further extending the club’s interaction with its fans around the world.”_
Intrigued by all things social, Nishtha will invariably tweet about you. When not tweeting or writing about the next viral video, you will hear her proclaiming her love to Metallica, James Hetfield, Opeth, Akerfeldt and all bands that go 'growl'. She also obsesses about ACP Pradyuman and South Park and you will always find her moving around with a book. Her focus is on all the happening stuff in the tech domain, and she won't hesitate to take a shot at some of the oddball devices that make their way to our labs.