Social Media and The White House
May 4, 2009 by Bill Sobel
Filed under Technology
May 2 (Bloomberg) — The White House began using services from Facebook Inc., News Corp.’s MySpace and Twitter Inc. to connect directly with the millions of Americans on social- networking sites.
President Barack Obama’s administration has created pages on Facebook and MySpace, the most popular social-networking sites, along with Twitter, where users post short text messages, the White House said on its blog. The pages had already attracted more than 100,000 fans or followers yesterday — mostly on Facebook.
The effort builds on the president’s official Web site, WhiteHouse.gov, which debuted in 1994. The White House also uses YouTube, Google Inc.’s video-sharing site, and Flickr, Yahoo! Inc.’s photo service. As a candidate, Obama relied on Twitter and Facebook to reach constituents, especially younger voters.
“WhiteHouse.gov is an important part of the administration’s effort to use the Internet to reach the public quickly and effectively — but it isn’t the only place,” the White House said on its blog post. “Technology has profoundly impacted how — and where — we all consume information and communicate with one another.”
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