Obama to personally tweet from Twitter account

MINNEAPOLIS — President Barack Obama is taking a more active role on Twitter, 140 characters at a time.

Obama's campaign says in a posting on its website that Obama will tweet regularly from the popular social media service and his tweets will be signed "-BO."

The campaign says it will manage Obama's Twitter account and Facebook page.

Obama tweeted early Friday evening, welcoming followers to "a new @BarackObama."

The campaign says the changes will let it report on Obama's daily activities while connecting with millions of supporters.

Obama has more than 8.69 million followers on Twitter.

According to the website twittercounter.com, that makes him the third most followed account among Twitter users behind Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.