What other #Louisville culture news site brings you jaw-droppers about $22,000 Kelly bags? https://t.co/a7g9Z9e7JU pic.twitter.com/od09q7ogLn
— Jim Hopkins (@louboulevard) September 4, 2016
Tag: Just Tweets
Humana has 3,000 of its more tech-savvy employees serving as unofficial brand ambassadors on Twitter, Facebook, and other heavily trafficked social networks. That’s out of 50,000 employees overall. Here’s how the Louisville insurer stacks up against other big area employers taking advance of free publicity on the short-messaging service Twitter. Founded in March 2006, Twitter has 313 million members.
2,390,000 followers
Amazon (joined February 2009)
1,760,000
Taco Bell (July 2007)
1,460,000
Pizza Hut (December 2007)
1,070,000
KFC (July 2008)
915,000
Ford Motor (July 2008)
430,000
Papa John’s (December 2008)
177,000
Jack Daniel’s (September 2010)
157,000
UPS (June 2010)
75,300
Texas Roadhouse (November 2008)
28,600
Humana (March 2009)
20,900
GE Appliances (September 2009)
15,700
Yum Brands (September 2007)
5,493
Haier America (March 2009)
4,597
Kindred (May 2009)
0
Brown-Forman (no account)
Tortoise or hare? Both!
The list shows that simply getting on Twitter early doesn’t guarantee a big following; you’ve got to work it. Tech behemoth Amazon didn’t join until nearly three years after Twitter launched, but it’s No. 1.
On the other hand, Yum Brands has just 15,700 followers even though it was the second-earliest to join. But Yum’s a corporate brand; it makes sense that its consumer brands — KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell — do all the heavy lifting.
To put all these figures in perspective, consider the person with the most Twitter followers in the world: singer Katy Perry, with 91.9 million. Perry, 31, joined in February 2009. Top Twitter followers.
Boulevard’s on Twitter, too.
And we’re just getting started; please follow us.
* U.S. accounts only.
That’s just one of the better overnight Twitter reactions to Donald Trump‘s Tweeted photo last night of himself eating a KFC meal with silverware aboard his jet. Perez Hilton posted a nice roundup of the rest.
Here’s Trump and Democrat Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts, whose failed 1988 White House campaign took a public relations hit after his staged outing in a tank failed to counter Republican charges he was weak on national defense:
By Jim Hopkins
Boulevard Publisher
The spirits giant Brown-Forman depends on the U.K. for 10% of its annual sales, and the rest of Europe for another 21% — making Britain’s surprise vote to quit the E.U. especially meaningful last month. Brexit also recalled Brown-Forman’s familial ties to the Kingdom through the techie U.S. ambassador Matthew Barzun.
“Well, it’s been a big day,” he Tweeted the day after the June 23 referendum, “and as @POTUS says, our unmatched & unbreakable #SpecialRelationship will endure.”
Barzun, 45, a part-year Louisville resident, is a former technology entrepreneur from the Internet’s early days, becoming only the fourth employee of CNET Networks in 1993. He worked there until 2004 in roles including chief strategy officer and executive vice president, according to his State Department biography.
Barzun has been married to Brown-Forman heiress Brooke Brown Barzun since 1999. Her father was the late Brown-Forman CEO Owsley Brown II, and her mother is Owsley’s widow, the philanthropist Christy Brown.
A fifth-generation Brown
The company is one of Louisville’s most storied businesses. It was founded by Brooke’s great-great grandfather George Garvin Brown in 1870. The distiller employs 1,300 workers in the city and another 3,300 worldwide, where the company distributes Jack Daniel’s, Finlandia vodka and other marquee brands in about 160 countries. Tomorrow, shareholders will hold their annual meeting at the Dixie Highway headquarters; three board members up for re-election also are fifth-generation members of the family controlling the nearly 150-year-old distiller.
The Barzuns’ rarefied social and political connections were on full display in November 2013, when the couple rode in a gilded, horse-drawn carriage to Buckingham Palace to present his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II; photo, top, and in this video:
The Barzuns also entertained the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall during a reception last year at the ambassador’s official Winfield House residence in London, shortly before the royals visited Louisville at Christy Brown’s invitation:
President Obama handed Continue reading “Royal ties that bind: Brown-Forman’s Barzun-Bingham connection shined bright in the Brexit shocker”
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