On Wednesday (and into early Thursday), Kentucky Junior Senator Rand Paul led a 13-hour filibuster – the old-fashioned “talk until you can’t talk anymore” type. Paul, aided by a handful of other Senators, used exactly 12 hours and 52 minutes to delay the confirmation of John Brennan as CIA head. Paul stated that the filibuster was in response to the government’s drone program, specifically a clause that may allow the use of drones on American citizens on American soil.

And he live-tweeted the whole thing.

This, combined with the bevy of news coverage, led Rand Paul to gain an incredible amount of Twitter followers.

But just how many followers has he gained since yesterday? Over 40,000, actually.

TwitterCounter showed just over 96,000 followers for Senator Paul on Wednesday before the epic filibuster began. And as of the writing of this article, Paul has just over 140,000.

If you want to raise your influence on social media, it appears that a two-day filibuster isn’t a bad idea.

Thank you to my colleagues in the House & Senate, and to all the Americans who stood w/ me tonight in support of preserving civil liberties.

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) March 7, 2013