Four Years Later, Obama Will Start Tweeting Himself
Social media was seen as a big factor in the 2008 campaigns, but it was basically just a marketing tool used by a candidate’s staff to get out the vote, spread campaign commercials, and raise money. Now, politicians are actually using tools like Twitter themselves, for better and for Weiner.
Today Obama for America, U.S. President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, announced it had taken over control of his Twitter and Facebook accounts from the White House. As part of the move, Obama himself will “regularly” contribute updates himself, designated by the signature “-BO.”
Despite the hurrah around the first tweeting president (Obama joined in April 2007), Obama admitted in 2009 that aides were responsible for composing his tweets.
“Let me say that I have never used Twitter,” he told students in Shanghai. “I noticed that young people are very busy with these electronics. My thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone.”
The 2012 Obama campaign said today it will try to use social media sites as interactive tools rather than just straight announcements and daily reports.
Obama has 8.7 million Twitter followers and 21.7 million Facebook fans.