Washington ( CNN ) -- It was my first chance to spend some quality time at dinner with First Lady Michelle Obama , so I decided to do what my pal Ali Velshi would probably do in the same situation : get her hooked on Twitter . I was sitting with the first lady and Jay Leno at the head table for Saturday night 's White House Correspondents Association Dinner because I 'm a member of the association 's board , a front-row seat to the slew of celebrities who walked up to gawk at Mrs. Obama and the president , who was a few seats from me . Teen sensation Justin Beiber , famous-for-being-famous Kim Kardashian , comedian Chevy Chase and actor Morgan Freeman all walked up to the rope line separating the head table from the rest of the ballroom to send the first couple a shout-out . I was snapping pics of the celebrity parade on my iPhone and posting them to my Twitter account , @ edhenrycnn , during dessert , just a few minutes before the president and Leno would take their turns at telling some jokes . Leno , a social media skeptic , finally turned to me with squinted eyes and said in a conspiratorial tone , `` Are you tweeting right now ? '' I confessed to Leno that I was , sparking Mrs. Obama to ask me whether journalists find value in social media or whether it 's mostly trivial . I said I find it helpful to get feedback , good and bad , from people who follow my tweets . When Mrs. Obama mentioned that she had never tweeted , I noted that the president had sent out his first tweet a few months ago from a Red Cross account to promote relief to Haiti and wondered aloud : `` Why do n't you send out your first tweet on my iPhone ? '' The first lady laughed and said her press staff would n't be happy if she went rogue like that . Besides , she said , White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs would have to sign off first . Noting that Gibbs was sitting at the other end of the head table , I stood and told the first lady I 'd ask him . To my surprise , Gibbs instantly told me it was a fun idea , on one condition : I had to first send out a tweet saying he had endorsed it , so that colleagues on Mrs. Obama 's staff were not blindsided . I typed out a tweet saying , `` i am trying to coax First Lady to do her first ever tweet . Gibbs @ presssec just gave his blessing . '' Then I walked back to Mrs. Obama to tell her the good news . But she told me good-naturedly , `` Gibbs did not say that ; you 're lying ! '' I assured the first lady I would not tell her a fib , which prompted Leno to jump to his feet to say he 'd go get Gibbs to sort this out once and for all . A laughing Gibbs came over and advised the first lady it would be a harmless exercise , but she was skeptical until the commander in chief finally weighed in . Hearing the light-hearted argument playing out a few seats down , the president asked , `` What 's going on ? '' The first lady explained her dilemma , but the president waved his hand as if to say `` no big deal '' and told her to go for it . I handed the first lady my iPhone , but it quickly became apparent that she had very little experiences with this smartphone . Like many people , she said , `` How do you type on this ? '' Gibbs , who was looking over our shoulders , suggested that I type it out , so I told Mrs. Obama to start dictating the note . I started my typing `` from flotus , '' as in `` first lady of the United States . '' She joked about the pressure of coming up with something interesting to say . She started simply with how she was at the dinner and dictated , `` this is officially my first Twitter '' and added her thoughts about the comedy acts about to perform . I knew Mrs. Obama should have called it her first `` tweet , '' but I did n't want to be in the uncomfortable position of correcting the first lady -- my mom would be appalled -- and sounding like a tech know-it-all . She asked Gibbs for his opinion on what she had dictated , and he said the proper way to say it was that it was her first tweet . Mrs. Obama grilled me on whether Gibbs was right , and I said he was but I did n't want to be the one changing her words , so she politely asked me to change it so that she sounded as hip as possible . The final version , for the history books : `` from flotus : 'here at dinner this is officially my first Tweet . i am looking forward to some good laughs from the potus and jay ' '' . Some of my followers were particularly amused that Mrs. Obama referred to her husband as `` the potus '' -- as in the president of the United States -- and started re-tweeting it . It also got me a few more followers , which brings me back to Ali Velshi . On our daily segment on his show -- the `` Ed Henry Segment , '' of course -- Velshi and I tease each other about necktie choices and who has more people following our tweets . For the record , I have 12,313 followers as of this morning . Velshi seems stuck on 11,025 . So let me take this opportunity to encourage the first lady to set up her own Twitter account . I bet it will be a smart way for her to push her initiatives , just as former first lady Laura Bush now has a Twitter account to help sell her memoirs and talk up her pet causes , too . Besides , I 'm hoping Mrs. Obama will follow me , and not Velshi , since I hooked her up with her first tweet .
CNN 's Jay Leno sat at main table with Henry , Henry at dinner . Mrs. Ed Henry asks if journalists find value in social media or if it 's mostly trivial . Gibbs encourages first lady to tweet from his phone , gets permission from Gibbs . `` Flotus '' tweet is picked up by other users .