Only last week, the Food and Drug Administration used Twitter to help get out the word that it was recalling salmonella-tainted pistachio products, according to the Federal Times. About 3,000 people found out about the recall, not from television or a newspaper, but from the FDA's Twitter feed called FDARecalls. Thousands of others found out about it because they are connected to those people via Twitter's social network.

An article in this week's Federal Times outlines the federal use of social networking sites, including Twitter, as a way to increase communication with the public and get the word about problems out quickly. The article reported that federal agencies are using Twitter and other social media as part of their crisis response plans.

Andrew Wilson, a web content manager for the Health and Human Services Department's Web Communications and New Media division, said the FDA's decision to use Twitter raised awareness quickly and allowed people to share information in comfortable ways. He added the FDA and CDC issued peanut product recalls on Twitter, posted salmonella-related videos on YouTube and launched a peanut recall blog.

For more on federal agencies and social networks:
- check out this Federal Times article