@WhiteHouse has added 22,000 followers in the last six days, the administration says. That's 3,100 followers per day, or a 37% increase on the amount of new followers @WhiteHouse got each day previously. More important for the account's influence is all the engagement it's getting: @ mentions of the White House account surged from 500 per day to more than 9,000, a 450% increase in the kind of metric that services like Klout care about.
The reason for all this retweeting? Office Hours, the daily question-and-answer session launched last Tuesday, starring officials from the National Economic Council answering questions on fiscal policy. While that might not sound like the biggest draw on Twitter, there are a handful of reasons that explain why followers are flocking. Firstly, the economics duo -- Brian Deese and Jason Furman -- are answering our questions on the debt ceiling, which has been on many minds of late. Secondly, as the name of the program suggests, they're keeping regular, pre-announced daily hours that are amenable to U.S. users. Monday, for example, Deese will be fielding your queries from 5 p.m. ET.