Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has joined the social networking site Twitter, following the trend set by Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull last month and US President-elect Barack Obama.

At lunchtime yesterday Rudd posted his first ‘tweet’ cheerfully acknowledging that he is “Looking forward to communicating with you on Twitter”.

As of 8am AEDT Thursday, Rudd already had 229 followers and was following 53 people. In comparison, Turnbull has 1,253 followers while Obama has 128,497.

The PM’s Twitter account coincides with the launch of his new Web site www.kevinpm.com.au, which he will be using to speak frankly with the nation about the big challenges facing Australia, as stated on the Web site.

Rudd also has his own MySpace account which boasts 24,481 friends, with Peter Garrett featured as his ‘top friend’.

In addition to Twitter and MySpace, you can find the PM on Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.