#FollowFriday: Robert Bowling @fourzerotwo

If you’re a Twitter user, then I’m sure by now you’ve seen the weekly #ff hashtag show up. The tag, which is a shortened form of #followfriday, indicates the Tweeter’s (Twitterer? Tweetist?) showcase of recommended people to follow. Our team at SideQuesting follows several great people in the gaming industry, from journalists to developers, critics to other gamers, and we’d love to share these folks with you.

Each week, we’ll be selecting one interesting person in the industry to follow on Twitter for a variety of reasons. Come back every Friday to see who gets the award.

This week we turn the attention to someone who’s helped diffuse a major gaming PR bomb, Robert Bowling Creative Strategist at Infinity Ward.

When the whole Modern Warfare 3 leak occurred last week, almost instantly fingers were being pointed and fans began grumbling. Was the information accurate? Had Activision purposefully leaked the info (we came to find out that no, they did not)? Within a day of the leak, it was Robert Bowling who hopped on to Twitter and helped begin rectifying the situation.

Friday, May 13th: A lot of hype & a lot of leaked info on #MW3, some still accurate, some not. To avoid spoiling the experience, I’d wait for the real reveal.

It was that quick. Heck, even using the #MW3 hashtag was a way to not only acknowledge the existence of the game, but also to centralize the conversation onto Twitter and away from the rumor-spewing blogs. Things suddenly got under control.  It was an extremely professional way to target the situation, especially on social networking sites that tend to let corporate spin overrun the net. Robert spoke to the fans of the series regularly, answering questions along the way.  He’s been accessible throughout odd hours of the night, which is saying a lot for someone who’s also a full-time father.

Robert Bowling, tonight we salute you for the great work you did in delivering information to fans and media alike. Hold your head high, look through your virtual sniper scope at the target, and take aim at the prize: you’ve earned Team SideQuesting’s Follow Friday!

You can follow Robert Bowling at @fourzerotwo