WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has another podium -- Twitter.
President Barack Obama's spokesman joined the microblogging service on Saturday and has already attracted nearly 18,000 followers to his account at @presssec.
"Learning about 'the twitter' -- easing into this with first tweet -- any tips?" read his first message.
Gibbs followed it up the next day with: "wow -- in a less than 30 hours almost 17K of you are following -- amazing -- watch out Kim Kardashian! Thanks to all for the smart tips!"
Gibbs has a long way to go, however, before he catches up to reality TV star Kardashian, whose Twitter account, @kimkardashian, has nearly three million followers.
He also has a long way to go to catch his boss, whose @barackobama account has more than 3.2 million followers although the president has acknowledged he doesn't send his own "tweets."
Gibbs' Twitter page also contains a warning that since his is an official White House account comments and messages the press secretary receives "may be archived" in line with the Presidential Records Act.
© AFP 2012