The White House has officially joined Foursquare. The adoption of the location-sharing social network is the latest move by the nation’s highest office to connect with the American people (i.e. win over voters) in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election.
Signing up for Foursquare comes at the kickoff of the president’s “economic bus tour,” a three-day campaign sweep that started Monday in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, goes through two towns in eastern Iowa and concludes in Alpha, Illinois. The White House hopes enthusiastic supporters will use Foursquare to keep up with where President Obama stops on tour, and to check-in when they are at an Obama town hall meeting, or even visiting the White House.
According to the White House website, Foursquare users can expect the following from the president:
- Follow White House “Tips”: See the places the President and administration officials visit around the country and the world, follow news and events by location, learn about the White House and more.
- “Check-in” to the White House and events: Are you visiting the White House or attending a Town Hall with the President? Check-in.
Foursquare is only the newest weapon in the president’s social media arsenal. In April, President Obama held a town hall-style meeting at Facebook headquarters, which was broadcast exclusively over a live video feed accessible through the social network. The 21st Century political theater was moderated by Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and much of the discussion centered around the ties between government and technology. The president followed up this appearance with another town hall-style Q&A session that took all its questions for Obama from Twitter. More than 150,000 questions were submitted.
President Obama has even begun posting some of his own tweets. During the recent debt ceiling standoff in Congress, the president took to Twitter to urge the American people to contact their representatives on Capitol Hill in an attempt to push debate forward on the matter.
