Why & How: Melinda Gates Joins Twitter, Soars To 20,000 Followers In 2 Days

She may have only tweeted seven times thus far, but Melinda Gates is amassing followers on Twitter at a rapid pace. She’s nowhere near her hubby, Bill, just yet, but given his clout and her association with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, she could reach his more-than-a-million-followers status faster than you might think.
Melinda signed up for Twitter on September 21st, and since then has amassed just under 20,000 followers. That means she’s seeing a 10,000/day follower growth – wouldn’t you just drool if that was you?
Rather than simply signing on and beginning to tweet, she wrote a thoughtful piece on why she decided to join Twitter on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation blog, which she tweeted in her first post. Part of her explanation, from the blog appropriately titled “Impatient Optimists” includes:

“As the head of a foundation focused on what I consider to be some of the world’s most pressing issues—health, education, and poverty—I’m constantly aware of the urgency underlying our work. There is not a moment to waste when millions of people’s lives and futures are at stake.
This impatience is why I’m happy to be joining Twitter officially today as @melindagates. After all, what’s more impatient than a tweet?”

In the six tweets following her first, she has referenced The UN Foundation, UNICEF and the Colbert Report. She is using Twitter to share stories about the humanitarian issues that she is most passionate about, her upcoming appearances and blog posts, as well as highlighting events and conferences around the world that deal with these issues.
Her nearly 20,000 followers are apparently eager to retweet and engage with Melinda, as she already has a rather enviable Klout score of 64 – that’s just eight points behind Bill.
And, while on that topic, I’m quite sure a lot of the followers who jumped on Melissa’s account in these first two days were influenced by the tweet that Bill sent out when his wife joined Twitter: