Hello, Facebook! Obama gets his social media on
That's part of the message that President Obama posted on his first Facebook page on Monday.
"I hope you'll think of this as a place where we can have real conversations about the most important issues facing our country – a place where you can hear directly from me, and share your own thoughts and stories. (You can expect some just-for-fun stuff, too.)," Obama wrote.
The president then took the opportunity to get behind the issue of climate change.
"I hope you'll join me in speaking out on climate change and educating your friends about why this issue is so important," he wrote in his post. "At a time when nearly three in four adults online use Facebook, this feels like a great place to do it. Share your thoughts in the comments, and pass this message on to folks you think need to see it. If we're all in this together, I'm confident we can solve this and do right by future generations."
For someone who just joined Facebook on Monday, Obama already has more than 750,000 likes on his page, and more than 34,000 users shared his first post.
Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and CEO of Facebook, commented on Obama's post, writing, "Welcome, President Obama! I'm excited that you've joined our community, and I look forward to seeing how you engage with people here on Facebook."
The page also includes images of the president, along with a video of him walking on the South Lawn of the White House, talking about climate change and his upcoming meeting with world leaders in Paris about global action to address the issue.
Kori Schulman, deputy director of Digital Strategy for the White House, noted on the White House's official website that the president will use Facebook to engage directly with Americans.
"The President is committed to making his administration the most open and participatory in history, and this page will offer Americans a new venue to share their thoughts with the president on the issues that they care about the most," she wrote.
Obama is no newbie to social media.
Since his first presidential run, Obama and his digital team have used social media to reach out to younger voters through sites like Twitter and Facebook.
On his inauguration day in 2009, the Whitehouse.gov website was redesigned to put a focus on new media, such as blog posts, and enabling people to sign up for email news alerts.
In January, the president's social media savvy staff pushed out his message on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram during Obama's State of the Union address, supporting various parts of his speech with tweets, posts, animated GIFs and videos.
Obama certainly isn't the first global leader to use social media to get his message out.
Pope Francis took to Twitter in 2013, immediately garnering nearly 2 million followers. Today, the pope, who also has his own channel on YouTube, has 7.82 million Twitter followers.
The British monarchy also runs a YouTube channel.