Joining the masses to quickly and succinctly communicate, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is using Twitter to connect with the public.
His handle? @federalreserve.
According to Bloomberg, the Federal Reserve will use Twitter to send messages about press releases, Congressional reports, speeches, testimony and the weekly balance sheet. It will also tweet “educational frequently asked questions.”
The action comes as the Fed is trying to help the public make sense of its policies and how the Federal Reserve system works. Since Bernanke took over, he’s been expanding communications. He started holding quarterly press conferences in 2011 and began going on public appearances such as a speech at a Texas military base and a stint as a teacher for multiple lectures at George Washington University, which will be held at month’s end.
The Federal Reserve made the announcement about Twitter on Wednesday morning and the number of followers swelled to more than 1,500 one hour after the press release came out at 9 a.m. ET. Almost four hours later, the number was close to 5,000 .
With the new @federalreserve, it joins some regional Fed banks in the system such as Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
And for those of you Twitter followers who want a false Ben Bernanke account, try @Plaid_Bernanke.
