'Velvet Hammer' Shares First Tweet as Twitter CEO

Linda Yaccarino tells Elon Musk she has 'long been inspired by your vision'
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 14, 2023 6:15 AM CDT
Twitter's New Hire Shares First Tweet as CEO
Elon Musk, center, speaks with Linda Yaccarino, then with NBCUniversal, at the POSSIBLE marketing conference, Tuesday, April 18, 2023, in Miami Beach, Fla.   (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

The new Twitter CEO tweeted for the first time since Elon Musk unveiled his pick. Linda Yaccarino, formerly an advertising exec with NBCUniversal, praised Musk and joked about her sudden surge in followers, reports Deadline. “I’ve long been inspired by your vision to create a brighter future," Yaccarino wrote in response to Musk's tweet of the announcement. "I’m excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together!” She also noted that "I see I have some new followers…I’m not as prolific as @elonmusk (yet!), but I’m just as committed to the future of this platform."

Musk has nearly 140 million followers and Yaccarino about 350,000. “Your feedback is VITAL to that future," Yaccarino added. "I’m here for all of it. Let’s keep the conversation going and build Twitter 2.0 together!” Musk's selection of the 60-year-old Yaccarino continues to get decent reviews from the business world, particularly because she brings an expertise in handling modern advertisers to a platform that has lost lots of them since Musk took over. The Wall Street Journal notes that she was nicknamed the "Velvet Hammer" at NBCUniversal "because her hard-nosed negotiation tactics come wrapped in a friendly package."

But she clearly got results, with the team she led generating more than $100 billion in ad sales under her watch, according to her old company. The Journal profile also calls her an "advertising machine," a "hard-charging executive," and an "artful self-promoter." Slate notes that Yaccarino has critics on both the left and right who fear she's in the opposite camp of whichever one they are in. Musk, meanwhile, already has addressed the concerns of critics who are worried she will restrict speech on Twitter to appease advertisers. “I hear your concerns," he wrote, "but don’t judge too early. I am adamant about defending free speech, even if it means losing money.” (More Linda Yaccarino stories.)

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