Welcome, @CraigyFerg! Craig Ferguson Joins Twitter

Craig Ferguson is the second late-night host to join Twitter. Over a year after Jimmy Fallon joined, foreshadowing his web-savvy show, Ferguson jumped in with gusto, tweeting 18 times in his first twelve hours.

After pooh-poohing it in the past, Ferguson announced at the top of Monday night’s show that he had succumbed and was joining Twitter, tweeting up a storm during his show, wondering if he was allowed to swear, experimenting with the ‘retweet’ function, crowdsourcing, pushing his favorite show Mythbusters, and exclaiming, “God this shit is terrific.”

The Wrap’s Josef Adalian confirmed from CBS that this was, indeed, Ferguson’s account (it’s not yet verified). At the time of writing — three hours after he announced it on his show — he had 12,805 followers, plus many retweets; expect both numbers to skyrocket in the next day or so.

Does this foreshadow the rest of the late-night crew getting on Twitter? The last two standing big dogs, Jay Leno and David Letterman? It seems puny to compare Ferguson’s 12K follower count with the blockbuster 120-million audience for last night’s Superbowl (and commercial), but it’s gonna be mighty competitive out there in this fracturing, nichefying new world, so the smart player will go to where the fans are for that extra push. It’s worked nicely for Fallon, who has become an Internet-kids darling (with a
Webby award to prove it) and gets a healthy next-day pickup for his spots thanks to Twitter (not just him, but also his staff). It will be interesting to see what Ferguson does with this outlet — newbies who get caught up in the instant-gratification blank-slate fun of Twitter at the start become proselytizers and true believers — and frequent users. So we may have some fun extra content from Ferguson to look forward to soon.

Will it lead to more viewers? Perhaps — I can say it has led to at least one, since I just perma-DVR’d Ferguson so I never miss a moment like this again. (I was alerted by Google Zeitgeist; confirmed via Twitter and the Wrap). But it’s just an example of multi-platform engagement, and chasing your audience interactively, both of which are trending – and inevitable – strategies in the formerly one-way world of television. So.