Is Charlie Sheen on his way to becoming the new king of Twitter?

How do you follow up a bizarre television appearance that becomes an instant viral hit and coins the new phrase “bi-winning“? Which is already a follow-up to the news that you went on a 36-hour drink and cocaine bender that ended up in hospitalisation. Well, if you’re Charlie Sheen, the highest paid television star in the world who’s just been fired from a hit TV show, it’s easy. You join Twitter and attract over 1.2-million followers in a little over two days, and break the Guiness World Record for the “Fastest Time to Reach 1 Million Followers”.

Sheen has exploded onto the micro-blogging site, and injected some much-needed excitement, controversy and danger into the platform which, many argue, is in danger of becoming too corporate and mainstream. His turn of phrase seems made for the 140-character format. Consider this quote after his ex-wife removed his sons from his custody: “Tiger blood will drip from my veins in my quest. Defeat is not an option. She is an absolute traitor and she must be banished. She will be living under a bridge, toothless and confused.” If Sheen tweets half as colourfully as he speaks, he is likely to gather a huge following.

Sheen’s Twitter bio reads: “Born Small… Now Huge… Winning… Bring it..! (unemployed winner…)” and he is littering the micro-blogging site with his catchphrases, such as #Tigerblood, #Biwinning and now #PlanBetter, each of which became heavily trending topics once they were introduced by Sheen.

Sheen’s first tweet was an instant classic.

The accompanying Twitpic showed Sheen with porn star Bree Olson, playfully advertising chocolate milk and a drink called “Naked”.

England’s Telegraph newspaper reports that Sheen was able to get a verified account by taking over @charliesheen that had been squatted by another Twitter user. The deal was brokered by a firm called Ad.ly, which specialises in celebrity accounts on social media.

Sheen was able to get his Twitter account verified much faster than most celebrities. According to Ad.ly CEO Arnie Gullov-Singh: “We know a bunch of people at Twitter, and we reached out to them and told them that probably the biggest name in media right now wants to be on your platform and, of course, they were all right with it… Twitter doesn’t verify, but they make exceptions.”

Sheen has only tweeted twenty times so far, so it’s probably too early to anoint him as its new king. But he clearly knows how to talk to his fans in a way that engages them, and now that he’s been fired from his hit TV show, “Two and a Half Men”, he might just have the time on his hands to challenge hard-working celebs like Justin Bieber and Ashton Kutcher.