Robin Hood gets official Twitter account

By sfirth sarah firth

ROBIN Hood may be more than 800 years old but he has been catapulted into the 21st Century since he got a Twitter account.

The World Wide Robin Hood Society, in Sherwood, has obtained exclusive use of the name on the social-networking website after exposing several imposters posing as the outlaw.

The society hopes to use Robin's "tweets" – short messages published on the website – to promote Notts as a tourist destination to an online band of Merry Men following the messages.

Bob White, chairman of the society, founded 11 years ago, said: "With films, television series, books, comics, songs, places and companies named after him, Twitter had to acknowledge that Robin Hood was indeed a phenomenal global superstar – and they graciously granted him exclusive rights to the use of his celebrity name."

Twitter has given the group the right to act as the one and only bona fide Robin Hood on the site.

Mr White said: "Robin Hood was always somebody considered iconic and is still a celebrity today and of interest to people all over the world.

"Whenever anyone thinks of Robin Hood, they think of Nottingham."

Tweets will include gossip about the latest Robin Hood film, starring Russell Crowe, information on how to get to Notts and advice on where to stay.

Mike Douglas, director of the society, said: "We have 2,000 society members and a lot more on our mailing list.

"We try to encourage them to come to Nottingham.

"We found that someone already had Robin Hood as an account, and people had also taken the name with numbers on the end and things like that – so we asked Twitter if we could have it.

"We showed them we have Robin Hood Limited and other documents and they decided to give us the name."

A team of Robin Hood experts, including society members and historians, will have access to the account to tweet on Robin's behalf.

It is hoped the site will soon have 10,000 followers – the number of people already in touch with the society, which can be contacted at www.robinhood.info.

To follow Robin Hood online visit twitter.com/robinhood.

sarah.firth@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk