'It's Barack. Really!': President Obama gets his own account on Twitter

Obama will now directly engage with people with his new account

WASHINGTON: Barack Obama sent his first tweet from the first Twitter account dedicated to the President of the United States on Monday, and amassed over a million followers in just five hours.

"Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account," Obama tweeted from his verified @POTUS account, which had more than a million followers in its first five hours.

Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account.

— President Obama (@POTUS44) May 18, 2015

His Twitter page featured an image of Obama, his family and civil rights leaders crossing Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march earlier this year.

He described himself as "Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States" and followed his alma maters, his beloved Chicago sports teams, cabinet members, government departments, and key members of the army of White House staff who tweet.

Obama also followed former presidents George HW  Bush and Bill Clinton, but is not following @HillaryClinton, his former Secretary of State who is considered the front runner for the Democratic race for 2016.

It's not the first time Obama has tweeted. He has occasionally signed tweets from the @WhiteHouse account with his initials, "-bo" and also has used his personal account @BarackObama, which is currently run by Organising for Action, Obama's former campaign team.

President Obama.
In the Oval Office.
Tweeting.#WelcomeToTwitter, @POTUS!http://t.co/SzWXltjNK0 pic.twitter.com/ce4DurwYXj

— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) May 18, 2015

The @POTUS account will be "a new way for President Obama to engage directly with the American people, with tweets coming exclusively from him," said Alex Wall, a social media strategist with the White House, in a blog post.

And when his time in office is done, @POTUS will be passed on to future presidents, Wall said in a tweet.