Barack Obama To Tweet Personally Leading Up To 2012 Election

CORRECTION [June 19, 2:00 p.m. ET]: The original version of this article reported that the White House staff had managed President Obama's Facebook and Twitter accounts and had posted to @BarackObama. The staff of the White House has not managed the accounts, however, which were originally created by Obama for America and then managed by the Democratic National Committee. Now, Obama for America will manage both accounts.

President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign could get a social media boost after some major changes announced today.

The big news: the president himself will be tweeting on occasion, according to TechCrunch. Each presidential tweet will be signed "-BO."

To this point, the Democratic National Committee has been posting for him to @BarackObama. He's joked in the past about having never tweeted (though he did technically tweet this), but that will soon change.

Also notable is that the President's 2012 campaign staff will start managing his Twitter and Facebook accounts, effective immediately, rather than the Democratic National Committee.

The announcements were detailed in a blog post on Obama's campaign website, which notes the re-election campaign is underway and Obama is "counting on all of us to lead this organization from the grassroots up."

More frequent updates are expected too, per The Next Web. Obama for America vows to post "daily updates from the campaign trail, from Washington, and everywhere in between." The group also asks for feedback and ideas on how to best utilize the Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Obama hasn't sent a personal tweet yet, but his stream will indeed be one to watch. And Twitter could play a significant role this election season, as TechCrunch notes:

If the 2008 election was about Facebook, the 2012 election may also centralize around Twitter, which has more mass appeal than four years ago. Obama and his campaign are wise to start engaging constituents and citizens personally. In fact, Republican candidates are already starting to throw punches and jabs over Twitter. The fact that Obama will now be actually Tweeting from the account will add a ton of value to his stream.

Comments

[bealebkk]

03:48 PM on 06/19/2011

re-election dog and pony show.
Jobs! Lies! Gas prices! Wars! Economic! Gun runners! address these issues in person...!
...not the internet

[obamajesus]

01:04 PM on 06/19/2011

I like the orator Obama. No one can deliver a speech like he does. But, this saying one thing and doing the opposite has got to stop. These wars have to stop. Broken promises have to stop.. Being the police for the world has to stop.

Would the economy be in the shape its in if all the spending on war stopped? We need to get out of EVERY country around the world. Bring the military home and place a soldier every five feet on the southern border. Help America before helping the rest of the world. There is no help for hard times in America from Obama.

Stop the lying and misdirection Mr. President

[David Landry]

11:50 AM on 06/19/2011

Less talking, more listening Obama.

Listen then act ... we are tied of all the inspiring "Obama speak", then having him act the complete opposite.

Tweeting another bunch of platitudes that he is going to fold on if reelected is not going to cut it.

[Smirk]

06:08 AM on 06/19/2011

It's one thing for a Facebook or Twitter account that's managed as part of a formal political campaign, but I think it's unwise for any politician to post his or her own comments directly.

[thereisonlyoneparty]

11:40 PM on 06/19/2011

It is just too tempting for any male politician.

Internet technology is first used for sex.  That is just how the male mind works.

[PMVB]

11:56 PM on 06/18/2011

President Obama + his family have been a breath of fresh air in the White House + I wish him all the best for the 2012 election.

[MyTake]

06:12 PM on 06/18/2011

Oh, this is pretty dangerous.

I hope he does not do that Weiner Typo thing.

Imagine if was sending a message to the Military saying "Go Ahead - Bo*mb Gaddafi" and the message ended up going out on twitter as a tweat!

[JustABriefThought]

04:31 PM on 06/18/2011

These short burst - immediate response - types of communication are the only way to spread the truth instantly. Unfortunately, also the way to spread lies instantly. I do not think there would be an "Arab Spring" without Facebook, the Twitter birdie, YouTube, and handheld camera phones. How do we nominate them for the Nobel Peace Prize?

I sell my artworks all over the world from my dining room (which is also the shipping department). I worked at Atari, Apple 30 years ago and we sat around the conference table and talked about this day. It is amazing - and frightening. (However, I still cannot add a phone number to my cell phone and have to get my grandson to do it for me...)

[independentlib22]

03:34 PM on 06/18/2011

Those living in poverty don't need to talk to him. They need him to help them. They need him to stop his planned destruction of Medicaid. They need him to use his bully pulpit (he sure as hell does when it's for something he really wants like more war and the Obama tax cuts for billionaires) to stop the Dems in the senate from destroying Medicaid. They need to help with more money for food stamps and housing and Section 8 for the poor. They need him to but those billions a month going to wars for profit into helping them. They need him to create jobs instead of giving trillions to oil, insurance and drug companies. They need him to get back what his WS and bank buddies stole instead of tweeting with them. They need him get his BFF Monsanto to stop destroying the world's food supply instead of giving them 140 characters.

[DRaymond]

02:35 PM on 06/18/2011

I can see why the change of management.  It would be a real pain to see that only campaign workers made 'campaign' tweets while staff workers made 'white house' tweets.  Better, for the minimal cost involved, just turn it over to the campaign entirely.

And absolutely twitter is going to be a useful tool.  Thanks to anonymous 501c groups with anonymous corporate cash bogus and misleading attacks are going to by flying more often and faster than even in 2008   As Mark Twain said "A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth has time to put its boots on".  Twitter represents a way to refute and debunk the lies in near real time.

[bealebkk]

03:50 PM on 06/19/2011

or tell more lies

[TaylerWoods]

01:57 PM on 06/18/2011

It won't work...I keep asking him to #followme but I guess he just doesn't hear my tweets!?!

[LegallyPalin]

01:51 PM on 06/18/2011

Tweet this:

Bernie Sanders for president!

[Acebandg]

02:20 PM on 06/18/2011

Fiengold as well! i'd love to see those two take on the conventionality of this president and show the country what real progressives can do

[Ish11]

01:50 PM on 06/18/2011

Sorry O Im going with herman Cain this time!

[calblue61]

04:49 PM on 06/18/2011

well, that's short and sweet...and fit into the 140 characters twitter allows...

[Ifeomamn]

01:48 PM on 06/18/2011

Why?

I don't agree.

The president doesn't type his own briefs. He has a secretary.

There are more import things a pres can do, than encouraging 142 character tweet.


Our educational system is already messed up, why contribute to it?

[ResearchtheFacts]

01:46 PM on 06/18/2011

I guess the give three dollars and win a dinner with him is not going over to well. What has desperation to reach the little people set in? Do like your mentor Bush did since you have followed his failed leadership on everything else, start mailing out those $1200 checks then you can ask for the money back in campaign donations.

[duriostellaj]

01:42 PM on 06/18/2011

At first I thought it was ridiculous that the leader of the free world was taking even more time away from supposedly governing a country in crisis (lux vacas endless rounds of golf on the taxpayer dime) in another ridiculously early re-elect effort.

Then it hit me - this could be a great thing - the less the better so tweet away mr. pres.