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Buffett Speaks and Tweets

Warren E. Buffett has built a following over the years with pithy and memorable aphorisms about investing.

Now, he’ll try to do the same in 140 characters or fewer.

Mr. Buffett made his debut on Twitter on Thursday, with the handle @WarrenBuffett. He issued his first tweet at 12:20 p.m. (11:20 a.m. in Omaha):

Though revered on Wall Street, Mr. Buffett is not a technology whiz. In fact, the investor has a reputation as something of a technophobe, once saying he did not know how to check his voice mail on his cellphone.

In an interview with Fortune’s Pattie Sellers on Thursday, Mr. Buffett acknowledged some hesitations about making the leap onto Twitter.

“It’s pretty daring,” he said. “But I’ll try.”

Within minutes, Mr. Buffett’s Twitter account had thousands of followers. His Twitter account even got a blue check mark, indicating it was real.

Still, Mr. Buffett is not yet a member of one exclusive club â€" the Twitter users whose messages are beamed across Wall Street via Bloomberg terminals.

The early reviews of Mr. Buffett’s posts were largely positive.

Mr. Buffett, who is preparing for the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway this weekend, said Twitter had at least one feature going for it.

“The co-founder came from Nebraska,” he said, in an apparent reference to Evan Williams. “So it can’t all be bad.”