Warren Buffett Joins Twitter, Quickly Gains Thousands Of Followers

Warren Buffett has joined Twitter.

The 82-year-old Berkshire Hathaway CEO made his social media debut on Thursday, posting his very first tweet at 9:20 a.m. PT.

The Nebraska-based investment guru is easily America’s wealthiest technophobe, but he doesn’t have a computer in his office and has famously joked that he doesn’t even know how to check his voicemail. Still, Buffett chose to join social media Thursday morning during a conversation with Fortune senior editor-at-large Pattie Sellers.

He participated in a live-streamed video chat, called his “first social interview,” regarding an essay he wrote about women in leadership roles. The chat pulled questions from Twitter observing the hashtage #FortuneBuffett.

In the chat, Buffett said that it was an ethical imperative to see more women in leadership roles, but also noted that such promotions affect the bottom line, as well. “Fellow males, get onboard,” he wrote. “The closer that America comes to fully employing the talents of all its citizens, the greater its output of goods and services will be.”

At one point, Sellers prompted Buffett to go on Twitter, “in the spirit of this being your first social interview.”

“That’s pretty daring, but I’ll try,” laughed Buffett.

Sellers then presented a device with a Twitter handle already set up under Buffett’s name. Recognizing the historic moment, Sellers noted that Buffett’s first tweet “better be interesting,” and that “it better be entertaining” before handing him the reins and telling him to “tweet away.”

That “entertaining” and “interesting” tweet?

Warren is in the house.

— Warren Buffett (@WarrenBuffett) May 2, 2013

Nice!

So far, that is Buffett’s only tweet, and it’s not even clear whether he’ll use the account or keep it at all. He has already amassed about 100,000 followers as of this writing, though.

Are you following Warren Buffett on Twitter?

[Image via: Alice Schroeder, Wikimedia Commons]