Elon Musk hires man behind 'absolute unit' sheep meme to run Tesla's social media

Elon Musk has reportedly hired the man responsible for a viral tweet about a giant sheep to be Tesla’s social media manager.

Related: Tesla's Elon Musk reaches deal with SEC over Twitter use

Adam Koszary, programme manager for the UK’s Reading Museum and Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL), run by the University of Reading, will join Tesla in July, according to his Twitter account.

The @TheMerl account went viral in April last year when it tweeted an old picture of a large ram with the caption: “Look at this absolute unit.” The tweet has now been retweeted more than 31,000 times and has over 111,000 likes.

Last month Musk changed his Twitter bio to “absolute unit” and his picture to the image of the sheep. @TheMerl returned the compliment by changing its bio photo to one of Musk.

The tweet led to a series of messages from Musk ending with one reading: “My Twitter is pretty much complete nonsense at this point.”

Tesla was not immediately available for comment. It is not yet clear whether the sheep tweet was instrumental in Koszary’s hiring.

Musk has a troubled history with Twitter. The Tesla founder now has to have his tweets checked by lawyers after incorrectly claiming on social media that his company was close to a large investment from Saudi Arabia’s largest investment fund.

Tesla’s share price has slid in recent weeks as investors worry the company is running out of cash.