On Monday, the White House launched an official Facebook page for President Barack Obama. And nope, you can’t add him as a friend.
Since the page’s creation Monday morning, more than 20,000 people have already liked it. Aside from standard posts detailing his presidency, Obama’s first actual post was a two minute-long video showing him on the White House lawn. The text in the post discusses climate change; part of it reads:
“I say this often, but that’s because it’s always at the front of my mind: We’ve got to preserve this beautiful planet of ours for our kids and grandkids. And that means taking serious steps to address climate change once and for all…I hope you’ll join me on speaking out on climate change and educating your friends about why this issue is so important. At a time when nearly three in four adults online use Facebook, this feels like a great place to do it.”
Clearly, the Facebook page will be used as an outlet for Obama to communicate the issues he finds most important to the public. His first post follows his rejection of TransCanada’s application to build something called the Keystone XL pipeline, which, according to Obama, would have a negative effect on the United States’ role as a leader in fighting climate change. What’s interesting is how long it took our president to join Facebook. As he states in his post, nearly three in four adults online use the social media service, which is by far the world’s most popular. It’s astounding that he hasn’t used the outlet sooner.
The launch of Obama’s Facebook page follows the launch of his Twitter page last May. He now has five million followers on Twitter. His new Facebook page is different from any of his campaign pages or “official” fan pages, because it appears to be a more personal outlet for him to express what he cares most deeply about, rather than a page through which his employees make official statements about his opinions. The page also appears to represent him at his most “casual.” His header photo is him leaning against the rail of a boat, wearing sunglasses and looking off into the distance. But be careful before you shoot him a friendly message! According to the page, any comments or messages you try to relay to the president “may be archived.”
Do you think Obama’s Facebook presence will actually have an effect on our behavior? Or is this just another attempt for our country’s “cool” president to earn clout with the younger generations? Let us know in the comments!