InTheCapital

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

That Barack Obama is one clever dude…or at least his campaign people are. This morning, while the last embers of last night’s Iowa caucus were still smoldering, our Commander in Chief  officially joined Instagram…you know, because even the President needs 15 retro filter options for all those pics he’s snappin’.

Instagram, of course, was thrilled at the addition and officially welcomed him on their blog:

“We’re excited to welcome President Barack Obama to Instagram! We look forward to seeing how President Obama uses Instagram to give folks a visual sense of what happens in the everyday life of the President of the United States. In addition to sharing photos through the @barackobama Instagram account, the Obama 2012 staff is asking supporters to share their photos from the campaign trail with the tag #obama2012.”

Apart from the fact that this will make Obama look cooler with ‘the kids these days’, it’s also a savvy move. Instagram grew like crazy in 2011 as a social network, gaining over 14 million users during the last year. And if you like stats (and we know you do!) here are some more  that show exactly why Instagram will be a powerful way for Obama to look like a boss AND connect with the youth vote.

Photos

• 3: The average number of photos uploaded per second, one year ago.
• 60: The average number of photos uploaded per second, today.
• 400 million: The total number of photos shared on Instagram so far.
• 51,600+: The most likes on a single photo.

Info via Instagram