Twitter founder Evan Williams posted a message yesterday that was easy to misunderstand: “Met the Dalai Lama today in LA. Pitched him on using Twitter. He laughed.”
Some one had already set up the account @DalaiLama though, one week before Williams met with the religious leader. Five hours after the seemingly dismissive tweet, the @DalaiLama account was listed as confirmed authentic and began publishing messages. This almost exactly one year after a hoax account (@OHHDL The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama ) got 16,000 followers in one weekend before being declared a fake and shut down by Twitter Head Quarters. Just welcomed to the site moments ago by Twitter’s new VP of Communications Sean Garret, @DalaiLama appears to be real.
Apparently laughing at Twitter doesn’t mean you aren’t going to use it. That’s a good attitude to have.