President Twitter

Blending behind-the-scenes nuggets with a defense of President Barack Obama’s record, White House and administration officials increasingly are communicating through Twitter.
The popular social network is operating as a Web-based clearinghouse for public statements on weighty subjects (the federal budget) and the mundane (personal grocery lists). Forget press releases. Gibbs and his deputy, Bill Burton, are now sharing news in Twitter messages. So far 33,000 people have signed up to follow Gibbs and more than 6,000 are tracking Burton.
"Wow unreal game... POTUS watched OT in his office right off the Oval Office all of us are so proud of our great team," Gibbs tweeted during the men's Olympic hockey finals last Sunday, when the Americans lost the gold medal game to Canada in OT (overtime). POTUS is the acronym for President Of The United States.
As Obama’s team continues an online strategy set in place during the campaign, it seems only natural that they would make it a piece of a broader communications plan that extends across the government. UN Ambassador Susan Rice tweets about diplomacy, Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela tweets about the Western Hemisphere and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke tweets about trade.
With a news cycle now measured in seconds rather than days, administration officials recognize they must use the same tactics as the critics who assail them and the reporters who cover them.