Rupert Murdoch joins Twitter, gains 51,000+ followers

Founder of News Corp finally joins Twitter after criticizing the strength of the Web

NewsCorp leader, Rupert Murdoch, took some time on over the weekend to enter the Twitter party.

In just three days, Murdoch has amassed more than 50,000 followers following his 17 tweets, including one that was quickly deleted -- but was caught by the Twittersphere and preserved for all the scrutiny that anyone wishes to focus on the controversial figure in media.

On New Year's Eve, the @RupertMurdoch handle (which, at the time was unverified but hours later was given the Twitter checkmark) tweeted, "Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country."

Hours later Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng tweeted, "RUPERT!!! delete tweet!" and soon after the tweet was removed.

The media mogul may want to go the direction of Alec Baldwin, Ashton Kutcher and others by getting a public relations rep to vet tweets, especially when he appears to be unaware that public figures get a lot of backlash when they make off-the-cuff remarks about political and fiscal issues.

I was more taken aback by the billionaire's lack of appropriate grammar and use of spell check -- maybe he could at least run his tweets through a quick spell check (or give a lucky copy editor a job.)

While many are quickly adding the Twitter account as a must follow, many are taking the buzz as an opportunity to tweet about several of the missteps and scandals that Murdoch has made recently, including the former British Prime Minister, John Prescott.

Prescott tweeted, "I've left you a Happy New Year message on my voicemail." Making a quick snap at the News Corp leader during the phone hacking scandal, still ongoing in London.

Then the parody handle,@RupertMurdochPR, jumped on board with the tweet, "The first 30 tweets from @RupertMurdoch are free, then the paywall goes up." 

But many are looking at this jump into the microblogging site as a sign that Murdoch has moved away from his strong resistance of the Web.

Murdoch as even publicly questioned the strength that Twitter has in sustaining revenue but now has chosen @jack (co-founder of Twitter and CEO of Square) as one of the four accounts he is following.

"With his own voice, in his own way, @rupertmurdoch is now on Twitter," Dorsey tweeted on December 31.

Murdoch is also following Zynga founder Mark Pincus, the Chairman of Armshold Group and the account that provides updates on the co-founder of Google, Larry Page, @Plaid_Page.

It also appears that Murdoch has devoted a few of his first tweets to do some PR for Fox movies such as 'The Descendents' and 'We Bought a Zoo' as well as a quick plug for the NY Post. 

It looks to be the start of an interesting ride on Twitter if Murdoch continues to self-publish his tweets and will likely be fodder for more lashes at the Internet unsavy media mogul.