Obama to use Tumblr in 2012 campaign

The US president, Barack Obama, will turn to Tumblr in his attempts to secure a second term in 2012, following the successful use of other social networking tools in his 2008 rise to power.

Obama famously used Twitter and Facebook in 2008, and will now look to another blogging platform in Tumblr to boost his popularity with an increasingly tech obsessed and connected nation.

Using the http://barackobama.tumblr.com/ address, Obama's team are already sending out messages, the first encouraging people to join in and add their own stories during the campaign.

Trolls

"There will be trolls among you: this we know.We ask only that you remember that we're people—fairly nice ones—and that your mother would want you to be polite," concludes the post.

It seems likely that there will also be a Google+ account, although a seemingly official account was deleted from Google+ back in July despite appearing on search engine results even now.

British politicians are also embracing social media as they look to reach out to voters, although the now quickly fading and much mocked Digital Economy Act perhaps suggests that – with some notable exceptions - understanding of the modern digital world is not at its most complete in the Houses of Parliament.