Michelle Obama's twitter debut sees 100,000 followers within a few hours

Michelle Obama has made a Twitter debut, which is being seen as part of her husband's re-election campaign.

The US first lady's account, @michelleobama, will, however, be managed by aides on the Obama campaign, with any tweets from the first lady herself to be signed '-mo,' the BBC reported.

Within a few hours of opening her social networking website account, Michelle was closing in on 100,000 followers.

The president's account, @barackobama, is also managed by campaign officials, separate from the @whitehouse account.

The 47-year-old's arrival on the microblogging site sees her following in the footsteps of hundreds of politicians, candidates and campaign staff ahead of November's election.

She received a boost when her husband's account - but not her husband himself - told the president's 11 million followers that the first lady had joined Twitter.

"It's not every day we get to welcome the First Lady of the United States to Twitter - happy to have you, @MichelleObama!"

Michelle's first personal tweet included thanks for the "warm welcome".

"Look forward to staying in touch with you here," she tweeted.