Revealed: The Very First Brand On Twitter

On his official (and, finally, verified) feed, executive chairman Jack Dorsey often shares nostalgic musings, photographs and memories from days of Twitter yore, notably about early-stage development, pioneering users and other instrumental moments. In his latest publication, Dorsey has shed some light on another important Twitter milestone - namely, the very first brand to sign up to the network. In Dorsey’s tweet, he identifies jeans brand Earnest Sewn as “the first commercial account on Twitter”. How is he so confident? Easy. Dorsey created the account. I did a little digging and @earnestsewn is certainly one of the early Twitter profiles, being registered (by Dorsey) on November 9, 2006 (Twitter went live in July of that year), and having a user ID of 11,957 (lower even than Robert Scoble). So it’s definitely one of the first brands on the network. And you’d think Dorsey would know. After all, back then Twitter was a much quieter place and new registrations were probably watched pretty closely. So you'd assume they’d have noticed if a brand signed up. That is - if they recognised the name of that brand. With over eleven thousand profiles registered on Twitter before Earnest Sewn was activated there’s definitely half a chance another commercial account got there first. But until somebody else comes along and claims that top spot, we'll give Dorsey the benefit of the doubt and hand Earnest Sewn the crown. Not that they've done all that much with this lofty position. Four-and-a-half years later Earnest Sewn only has 581 followers - which, at 605, is only slightly less than the number of likes they have on Facebook. Indeed, most of the links Earnest Sewn shares on Twitter point right back to their Facebook page. Moreover, they've only managed to write 45 tweets, the first of which dates back to January, 2011. Everything prior to this looks like it's been deleted. Reminding us, once again, that being first is always, always, always a lot less important than being remarkable.

Social Pro Daily

Revealed: The Very First Brand On Twitter

Shea Bennett

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Shea Bennett