The Twitter feeds of White House staff are quickly becoming required reading for political correspondents around Washington D.C., according to an article in Politico.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs created an account on the microblogging site last Saturday, joining colleagues like deputy press secretary Bill Burton, and White House director of new media Macon Phillips who were already members.

"I was watching a Twitter feed while the president visited the briefing room last week, and I thought it was fascinating to watch and see what people were thinking, doing and writing," said Gibbs in an e-mail message to The New York Times last Saturday. "I figured adding our voice to that was good to do."

Gibbs has been active since joining. "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 exclaimed in his third tweet. He now has more than 23,000 followers, a number which is sure to rise.

Through brief, real-time Twitter updates, Gibbs and his staff can directly reach the White House press corps and other followers to address the news of the day. Twitter also lets key members of the Obama administration make quick announcements and provide commentary without having to release an official statement or call a press conference.

On Monday, Burton took to Twitter to correct a Washington Post article that claimed the Obamas returned to Chicago for Valentine's Day. Last month, Burton called out CNN for an article he "wholeheartedly" disagreed with.

"Twitter has helped us to quickly get information out, keep up with what is on the minds of our press corps, circulate stories we think they will find of interest and knock down stories that may be counterfactual," Burton explained to Politico.

The Obama administration has not hesitated to use social networking to its advantage in the past. Many political pundits applauded the Obama campaign's use of websites like Facebook to attract young voters in the run-up to his election. President Obama's Twitter account is updated by Organizing for America.

As Gibbs and the rest of the White House staff become more familiar with the website, expect their tweets to become news themselves.

Sources: Politico, The New York Times