House CAO denies Twitter poster contains 'typo'

The House Chief Administrative Office has a new Twitter page, but its most recent efforts to recruit new followers via a poster has become a viral joke around Capitol Hill.

The poster that went up last week around the Capitol (pictured here) instructs people to call a phone number in order to follow the CAO's online updates on Twitter, quickly prompting some to speculate that the CAO's office had confused Twitter, an online networking site, with a telephone system.

Not so, says CAO spokesman Jeff Ventura. The reason for the phone number, he explained, "is that our Twitter site is a private page for congressional employees only, so we need to verify that our followers actually work in a House office before we can approve them."

The office originally tried an email signup system, but Ventura said the multi-step process turned people off.  He admitted that the current verification system is also "cumbersome" (which may explain why the site only has about 200 followers so far), but he strongly denied that anyone at CAO confused tweets with telephone calls. "We are fully aware that Twitter is online."

To request Twitter updates from the CAO's private page, congressional staff should call (202) 226-6660.

Cross-posted on Washington Scene.