Apple CEO Tim Cook Starts Tweeting, Gets Verified & Scores 75K+ Followers In 2 Hours

Apple doesn’t have a rich track record when it comes to social media activity, but that changed a bit when its CEO, Tim Cook, started tweeting today.

Cook is using his @tim_cook username. There’s already another Tim Cook using @timcook, but that account has been inactive since 2009.

Apple’s Tim Cook didn’t actually join Twitter today; as MacRumors reports, that account was created back in July but sat inactive until today.

Cook had an obvious reason to get social: Apple began selling its new 5s and 5c iPhones around the world today. He and other Apple officials hit the streets early this morning to visit the line at the Apple Store in Palo Alto, and that was the subject of Cook’s first tweet:

Visited Retail Stores in Palo Alto today. Seeing so many happy customers reminds us of why we do what we do.

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) September 20, 2013

CNBC’s Steve Kopack pointed out that Cook had only six followers when he sent his first tweet. As I type this now, about 2.5 hours later, he has 76,270 followers.

There was debate at first about the legitimacy of the account, but fellow Apple exec Phil Schiller (whose account is verified) retweeted Cook and Apple later told CNBC that the account is actually Cook’s. About an hour after Cook’s first tweet, Twitter verified his account, too.

Cook is following 11 accounts at the moment, including two other Apple execs: Schiller and Eddy Cue. The question: Will Cook be more like Schiller, who tweets about 2-3 times a month on average, or like Cue, who has only tweeted three times in 2013?