9 Billionaires' First Tweets Warren Buffett, Elon Musk and Larry Ellison have all accumulated huge followings on Twitter, but they had to start somewhere.
By Grace Reader
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Warren Buffett, Elon Musk and Larry Ellison have all accumulated huge followings on Twitter, but they had to start somewhere.
All these men have large net worths and personalities, but here's how they introduced themselves to a world capped at 140 characters (oh, and happy #socialmediaday).
1. Lloyd Blankfein
Late to hop on the Twitter bandwagon is Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. But rather than tweeting about his company or new Twitter account, Blankfein used his first tweet to express disapproval of President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Within 18 hours of his first tweet, Blankfein garnered more than 15,500 followers.
Today's decision is a setback for the environment and for the U.S.'s leadership position in the world. #ParisAgreement
— Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) June 1, 2017
2. Jack Dorsey
Probably one of the most famous tweets is also the first tweet ever. The CEO and co-founder of Twitter tweeted out in March of 2006:
just setting up my twttr
— Jack (@jack) March 21, 2006
And no, he's not just saving characters: at that point the company was called twttr.
3. Warren Buffett
Buffett is known for punchy catchphrases such as, "Buy businesses that can be run by idiots," and, "The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything."
So it's no surprise that Buffett's first tweet comes as a short punchline.
Warren is in the house.
— Warren Buffett (@WarrenBuffett) May 2, 2013
Just a few retweets. No big deal.
4. Elon Musk
There are plenty of fake Elon Musk accounts on Twitter, some of the funniest being @BoredElonMusk and @therichwiseman, but Musk made sure to let followers know his first tweet was legitimate:
Please ignore prior tweets, as that was someone pretending to be me :) This is actually me.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2010
He even used a smiley face. How nice.
5. Pierre Omidyar
Omidyar's first tweet reads:
wondering what all the fuss is about
— Pierre Omidyar (@pierre) February 3, 2007
Apparently the "fuss" was worth it to the eBay founder, because he has to date tweeted more than 7,000 times.
Omidyar takes to Twitter to frequently comment on politics -- or, to be specific, Donald Trump.
6. Carl Icahn
Sure, it took Icahn a little while to get on board with Twitter, but he does pretty well when it comes to social media for an 80 year old.
The investor has accumulated almost 300,000 followers since his first tweet in 2013, mostly tweeting about his business endeavors.
Icahn resorted to humor for his first tweet:
Twitter is great. I like it almost as much as I like Dell.
— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) June 20, 2013
7. Sean Parker
As the first president of Facebook, Parker was likely hesitant to get on board with a competitor.
However, he reluctantly joined in 2011.
In his first tweet, Parker apologizes to Mark Zuckerberg, claiming that Scooter Braun, talent manager and owner of two record labels, made him do it.
Sorry Zuck, I had to do it eventually. (Actually @scooterbraun made me do it.)
— Sean Parker (@sparker) October 3, 2011
8. Rupert Murdoch
Like any (then) 80-year-old, Murdoch's first tweet was a little bit of a struggle.
Have just. Read The Rational Optimist. Great book.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) December 31, 2011
But he has improved since, often making headlines with his tweets.
Murdoch tweeted in March of 2016, the day of his wedding, that he was leaving Twitter.
9. Larry Ellison
Ellison's first tweet was also his last, but he still has more than 90,000 followers.
Of course, Ellison had to take the opportunity to comment on his competitors and highlight Oracle Cloud Services. His one tweet wouldn't be wasted.
Oracle's got 100+ enterprise applications live in the #cloud today, SAP's got nothin' but SuccessFactors until 2020
— Larry Ellison (@larryellison) June 6, 2012
