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The White House joins Instagram

Already hip to Twitter's Vine, President Obama's administration has embraced Facebook's service for sharing photos and videos.

Jennifer Van Grove Former Senior Writer / News
Jennifer Van Grove covered the social beat for CNET. She loves Boo the dog, CrossFit, and eating vegan. Her jokes are often in poor taste, but her articles are not.
Jennifer Van Grove
The White House's first Instagram update is a photo of Marine One. Screenshot/Jennifer Van Grove/CNET

Add Instagram to the list of social platforms that the White House is using to share presidential updates with the public.

The official account for President Barack Obama's administration arrived nearly a week after the launch of Instagram video. Yet, the White House decided to break in its brand-new account Wednesday with a photo. How very retro. The first photo depicts the Marine One helicopter taking off as the First Family leaves for a trip to Africa, and potentially sets the tone for a more intimate, "unfiltered," look at Obama's affairs.

The White House, by no means a social media novice, already maintains accounts on a myriad of platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and even Vine. Though kind of tardy to the Instagram party, the White House is already attracting thousands of followers in its first few hours on the Facebook-owned property.

Previously, Obama's 2012 election team was using Instagram under the Barack Obama handle, but that account has remained dormant since Obama was re-elected in November 2012.