Opinion: Social media wrap: Obama’s new-media maven Katie Stanton jumps ship to Twitter

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A pivotal cog in the Obama administration’s social-media strategy has turned her back on government work to take up a highly prized position with the social network Twitter.

Katie Stanton, who previously worked at Google and the State Department and was a founding player in Obama’s Citizen Participation drive, will lead Twitter’s international strategy. Twitter had previously announced its intention to hire a Washington liaison, but Stanton indicated on her personal feed she’d be working in business development.
She joins other recent high-profile administration departees including Budget Director Peter Orszag and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and, of course, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Stanton, who contributed to Haiti outreach and was special advisor the State Department‘s Office of Innovation under her username KateatState (no longer working), tweeted the news at her personal account @KatieS:

No mas @kateatstate. Farewell my friends @statedept. Keep up the great work!

And:

Just turned in my blackberry. No longer mobile double fisted. My iphone will get all the attention again. :)

And:

I’m going to help drive the int’l & business strategy @twitter. Will be based in the SF office.

Twitter’s moves to expand internationally became apparent after a much-ballyhooed visit earlier this month from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to the tech company’s San Francisco offices.

Stanton takes a leap from the White House to dealing with accounts like that of the Kremlin (an avid follower of @latimestot). All that’s missing is the red telephone. But that would be soooo old-school.
-- Craig Howie

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