Barack Obama Joins Google+, White House Itself Still Not There

First Britney Spears takes the top Google+ spot away from Google CEO Larry Page today. Now the President of the United States, Barack Obama, has opened an account.

Not Yet Verified, But Yes, Real

Is it really him? It’s actually a Google+ brand page for the Obama For America campaign, and not verified at the moment, but Steve Grove, head of community partnerships for Google+ welcomed the account, so it’s probably legit.

On Facebook, Obama’s campaign page has 24 million followers. On Twitter, the campaign page has 11 million followers. On Google Plus, the number isn’t yet being shown.

You will see a number for those who have +1’d the page, a way to say you like it without actually following it. The follower count to a page is typically far more than the +1 figure.

Obama’s Twitter account has existed since before he was elected. But in 2009, he famously admitted never actually having used Twitter himself.

In June of this year, it was announced he’d do the occasional tweet, as well as Facebook posts, himself — signed when he does as BO. There’s been no similar announcement for Google Plus, but I assume the same format will follow.

White House Yet To Arrive

The White House itself (rather than the Obama campaign) maintains accounts on Twitter (2.5 million followers), Facebook (1.2 million followers) and even YouTube (160,000 subscribers). But as best I can tell, there’s still no official White House page on Google Plus.

The Obama campaign has arrived; the official US government account has some catching up to do.

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Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and MarTech, and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.