Conan O'Brien Joins Twitter: New Account EXPLODES With Followers

A Conan O'Brien Twitter account surfaced this evening under the name @ConanOBrien and it is growing rapidly.

So did Conan O'Brien just join Twitter?

At first, it wasn't certain, but just an hour and a half after the inaugural tweet, Twitter added a "verified account" stamp to the page.

Conan's first tweet, posted at approximately 6 p.m. Feb. 24, 2010, said: "Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial. Somebody help me."

Within 10 minutes of his first tweet, he had a few thousand followers. And in his first half hour, he was up to 15,000 followers.

As of 7:30 p.m. EST, he's about to pass 50,000 followers, already 20,000 more than the verified @jayleno account. Two hours later, the feed had nearly 129,000 followers. He has yet to follow someone.

His bio reads, "I had a show. Then I had a different show. Now I have a Twitter account."

How did word of Conan's Twitter account spread so quickly?

A Twitter account belonging to former Tonight Show blogger Aaron Bleyaert tweeted, "Hey everybody! I'd like to introduce you all to @conanobrien. Yes! Conan is now on Twitter. ;)"

Bleyaert's Twitter account does not have a "verified by Twitter" stamp. But Blaeyert had several thousands of followers before his Conan tweet and a Tumblr apparently belonging to him (that has posted behind-the-scenes photos from The Tonight Show) is linked to the Twitter account.

Comments

[MadMoll]

05:20 PM on 02/28/2010

The "jayleno" account is simply the "Jay Leno Show's show account. it's not "leno" it's the show's media office tweeting the guest list.

[cjm1000]

07:00 PM on 02/28/2010

so.

is that the best spin you got?

[MadMoll]

01:04 AM on 03/01/2010

No spin. Fact. http://twitter.com/jayleno is the show's twitter feed. the account would have more followers if leno himself tweeted like oh, http://twitter.com/theEllenShow:
DJ Tony and I pick them. RT @FrigginRose catching up on dvr'ed ellens today- how do you pick out the song that you dance to every day??

He'd have more of a fan following. Twitter is a great marketing tool, but fans like to interact with them as human beings. Perhaps, Leno doesn't desire to be seen as human.

[cjm1000]

11:07 AM on 02/28/2010

OBrien - 438,233 followers....

Lamo - 31,000 followers

Btw, followers, soon to be viewers, whatever you want to call it.

[kylennblack]

02:57 AM on 02/28/2010

Conan's twitter is way cooler than Jay's show will ever be, and I bet that squirrel was more interesting.

[cookerman45]

09:21 AM on 02/28/2010

his show wasn't........EVER..

[cjm1000]

10:54 AM on 02/28/2010

yea, it was.

way hipper. way funnier. unless your comedic diabetic

[mnr1856]

01:37 PM on 03/03/2010

cookerman45, do you really enjoy Jay Leno's comedy or are you just a ratings/numbers = quality kind of guy?

[ywcachieve]

07:09 PM on 02/26/2010

'''"Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial. Somebody help me."''''

LOL....funny!

[ceez]

06:11 PM on 02/26/2010

he should webcast from his house!

[cookerman45]

10:48 PM on 02/26/2010

do these great ideas just come to you or are you put under hypnoses so you can think like a child?

[cjm1000]

10:57 AM on 02/28/2010

are most of your comebacks this boring, or are they just inspired by watching jay lamo shows?

[LeftOutside]

05:25 PM on 02/26/2010

Could we please get a moratorium on the use of the word "explodes" in Huffington Post article headlines? It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where the Elaine character overused exclamation points in a manuscript she was editing. The seemingly constant use of the word "explode" and its variations is annoying. The number of Huffington Post headlines containing the word "explodes" explodes on the website!

[ywcachieve]

07:18 PM on 02/26/2010

Explosive, isn't it....ahahahahahahaha

[dhrama]

04:36 PM on 02/26/2010

Hey guise! Can you believe they CURED CANCER?

Yeah, and they also abolished poverty and crime.

Therefore, it's ok to care about issues this trivial.

[NoPCZone]

04:21 PM on 02/26/2010

Conan, I have one word for you

SHOWTIME

Give them a call.
No FCC rules, no commercials and no NBC (Showtime is part of CBS).

Television City awaits...

[cookerman45]

09:09 PM on 02/26/2010

no viewers.

[cjm1000]

08:09 AM on 02/26/2010

wow, Lamo has 30,602 followers....he's been a member for almost a year.

Obrien has 361,516 followers...... he's been a member for a day and a half.

Ok, Lamo fans.. start spinnin it

[cookerman45]

11:29 AM on 02/26/2010

at least he cant GET FIRED from tweet,
361,516 fans and NO TV SHOW.

[Taliese]

01:16 PM on 02/26/2010

The 30 mil I heard he got when he left is good enough. ;-)

[cjm1000]

11:02 AM on 02/28/2010

he's had a show, he will have a show.

what do you got? ya loser

[thebirdstheword]

12:57 PM on 02/26/2010

um, twitter doesn't pay, so who cares?

not a leno fan, but this contrived "war" started by "team coco" is one of the lamest faux teabagger causes of the year.

[dhrama]

04:32 PM on 02/26/2010

only surpassed in lameness by the real teabaggers.

[cookerman45]

10:54 PM on 02/26/2010

he handled getting fired about as good as Palin handled Katie Couric interviews

[cookerman45]

09:34 PM on 02/25/2010

another conan thread goes to rest with merely a whimper, as his fans find other avenues to waste there time.....

[Anthony Zapata]

02:37 AM on 02/26/2010

Not me, I prefer to waste here time.

[cookerman45]

11:24 AM on 02/26/2010

have fun.....conan NEEDS you. I bet you turn out the lights before you tweet....

[VincentDafalong]

03:11 AM on 02/26/2010

"I like you, cooker, but then again I eat my own crap."

[cookerman45]

11:26 AM on 02/26/2010

DONT DRINK AND POST.

[DavidSilverberg]

04:40 PM on 02/25/2010

Not sure what all the fuss is...Oooh, a celebrity joined Twitter, he's tweeting about inane stuff. Get over it. Has been happening since Twitter was invented.
Digitaljournal.com

[masha2009]

03:28 PM on 02/25/2010

following him now. thanks for the info. he has near 300,000 now. wow.

[hotandcold]

05:06 PM on 02/25/2010

How many hits does leno have now? 3,000?

[pmerrick]

06:51 PM on 02/25/2010

30,000 and he's had his account for months.

[thebirdstheword]

01:00 PM on 02/26/2010

so, now the ultra-hip conan crowd is actually boasting about how many twitter followers conan has?

talk about irony.

[masha2009]

03:15 PM on 02/25/2010

so many "people" here from jay's show. can it guys, you have 11:30 back now.

[roger98]

02:23 PM on 02/25/2010

Please go away forever if not longer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[VincentDafalong]

12:10 AM on 02/27/2010

Regardless, I'll keep reminding you he's still around.

[Billyguitar]

11:57 AM on 02/25/2010

Oh yea, I'm Coo-Coo- for Co Co!