Twitter’s Role In 2012 Election – Obama’s Tweets Signed “BO”

The White House is no stranger to social media, so it comes as no surprise that the Obama White House embraced titan Twitter for its recent town hall discussions.

Not only was today the first Twitter Townhall discussion with President Obama, but President Obama’s 2012 Campaign team has “taken the reins” of his Facebook and Twitter accounts where they will be updating his followers and friends on the president’s daily activities. President Obama will also be tweeting directly, using the signature -B.O. The account currently has over 8 million followers.

Check out a snapshot of the @BarackObama Twitter feed below:

The Twitter Townhall discussion solicited questions about the economy, jobs and other important issues, and users retweeted the questions they supported. Then, Twitter’s Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey read the most popular questions to the President in a live discussion. The discussion was then tweeted by @townhall and summarized by @whitehouse.

Are any other candidates hopping on the Twitter train for their 2012 campaigns?

@Bachman2012 seems to be a joke, with only 1,873 followers and a tweet that reads, “I’m so excited to be running for President in 2012 because Congress just isn’t fun anymore without #weiner.”

@newtgingrich has over a million followers including NPR Fresh Air.

@THEHermanCain has about 47,000 followers and tweeted a question to the Obama Townhall, “As a mathematician, I’ve got to ask: exactly how did you come up with the jobs “created or saved” number, again? #askobama.”

Now we can follow these candidates, even if our cities aren’t on their campaign trails. Will you be following? Let us know in the comments.