Insights

Who has @500,000 Twitter followers and hasn’t sent a single tweet?

By December 5, 2012 November 1st, 2022 No Comments

None other than Pope Benedict XVI. Starting December 12, @Pontifex will be tweeting
in eight languages.  His Twitter handle has dual meaning: it’s the Latin word for pope and also means “bridge builder,” says Greg Burke the Vatican’s communication adviser. 

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The pope won’t personally be tweeting (someone in the Vatican’s secretariat of state will be doing the honors), but Benedict XVI will be approving all content. Questions can be submitted via #askpontifex – and he will be responding to live questions about faith.

How viral will the pope go? According to Twitter, religious leaders get one retweet for every 500 followers, whereas musicians get one for every 30,000 followers.

Will the pope follow you? No. The Vatican says that to avoid offending anyone, he will only follow himself – his 7 other accounts in different languages:

I wonder how many people will sign up for Twitter just for a chance at direct interaction with His Holiness…

~ Sandy Storey, Account Supervisor, The S3 Agency

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