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Obama 2012 campaign joins Instagram on eve of Iowa caucuses

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As Republicans focused on the Iowa caucuses and President Barack Obama made a pitch to Iowans of his own over streaming video on Tuesday, the Obama 2012 reelection campaign took its message to Instagram.

The president’s campaign staff, which is also looking to reach voters on Tumblr and Google+ (along with a few Republican rivals), has posted two photos thus far, both of the president speaking with Iowa’s caucus voters via video chat, making his case for another term in the White House.

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Although Instagram — a photo-sharing app known for retro filters that allows people to share photos with one another from their iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads — is new territory for Obama, the move by his 2012 campaign shouldn’t come as a surprise.

In the 2008 election, Obama’s team was so well known for its use of Twitter, Facebook and blogging to help build up an overwhelming amount of support that the Technology blog described Obama as ‘the first social media President.’ And over the last four years, the White House has made great use of the photo-sharing site Flickr.

Instagram, which has seen its more than 5-million users share more than 150-million photos, said in a company blog post that it is ‘excited to welcome President Barack Obama to Instagram’ and that it looks ‘forward to seeing how President Obama uses Instagram to give folks a visual sense of what happens in the everyday life of the President of the United States.’

The Obama 2012 campaign is also looking for supporters to share their photos with the @BarackObama Instagram account by tagging their photos with ‘#obama2012,’ Instagram said.

The company also made sure to point out that political coverage on Instagram has been on the rise over the last year as the 2012 presidential election gets closer.

‘News organizations such as NBC News, ABC World News and the Washington Post have been sharing behind-the-scenes photos at debates and town hall meetings across the country, offering a unique look into the 2012 elections,’ Instagram said.

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Among the most interesting photos shared so far by news organizations covering the election on Instagram would have to be Washington Post reporter Philip Rucker’s shot of Republican hopeful Mitt Romney typing on his Apple iPad in an airport.

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— Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+

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Twitter.com/nateog

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