Many federal, state and local government organizations are becoming active on Twitter. The White House is on Twitter. San Francisco is on Twitter. So are many other organizations large and small. With the widespread Twitter usage, come questions on whether tweets are considered public records under the Freedom of Information Act, and if so what is the best way to archive them.

Federal government lawyers have determined that all tweets posted by the White House spokesman need to be archived. Washington State Archive recently released a records management advice that offers guidance to state and local organizations on management and retention of messages posted to social media sites, including Twitter. It states that messages sent and received while transacting public business are considered public records. Other states will likely follow with similar guidance in the near future.

TwInbox – perfect Twitter archiving and retention solution

Many organizations have already started experimenting with TwInbox for managing and archiving tweets. They have found that TwInbox fits that bill very well. TwInbox integrates with Microsoft Outlook and adds a new toolbar to the Outlook user interface. All tweets, sent and received, are stored in Outlook folders.

Most government employees are already using Outlook. With TwInbox, there is no need for visiting the Twitter website or using a standalone client. Since users are already familiar with Outlook, there is little need for additional training and support.

Since tweets are stored in Outlook, the full power of Outlook features can be used for archiving, searching and managing tweets. If you already have an email archiving solution that works with Outlook, you can use it for tweets as well.

Are you using TwInbox already? If so, we would love to hear how it is working for you. If you have not used TwInbox, you can learn more and download it here.

Archiving Email

As you know, email messages are also considered public records. For email retention, learn more about MessageSave – a powerful email archiving solution with low cost of ownership.

The latest release of OutTwit has introduced several exciting features related to uploading and posting pictures as well as viewing tweets with images in them.

OutTwit now supports posting pictures attached to Outlook email messages as well as any image files from your computer to Twitter via TwitPic, Posterous and Twitgoo.

Read on for details on the new features, then head over to the OutTwit page to download the latest version.

Follow @TechHit on Twitter to keep up to date with news and updates.

1. Posting an Outlook email attachment picture

OutTwit makes posting an Outlook attachment picture to Twitter super simple.

• Select the message
• Open OutTwit’s Post window
• Select the attachments from the list of image thumbnails
• Click Upload to upload the picture, then click Update to post your message to Twitter.

View a quick demo:

2. Posting a picture from your computer

With OutTwit, to post a picture to Twitter you simply drag-and-drop, then click Upload.

• Open OutTwit’s Post window
• Drag and drop the picture you would like to post into that window
• Click Upload, then Update to post the message.

View a quick demo:

3. Previewing TwitPic pictures

If a tweet contains a link to a picture on TwitPic.com, OutTwit will show you a preview of this picture right in the message. You do not have to click on the link to see the picture anymore.

Download and install the latest version of OutTwit from this page. Enjoy and happy OutTwitting!

What would make OutTwit even more useful to you? What new features would you like to see added in the future?

• Multiple account support?
• Spell checker?
• TwitPic integration?
• What else?

Let us know in the comments below. Thanks, and keep on OutTwitting!