US election 2016: Hillary Clinton joins Instagram and hires Michelle Kwan as full-time staffer

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton joined over 300 million people on the photo-sharing app Instagram on 10 June.

Clinton, who is active on other social media sites, posted her first photo of a rack of red, white and blue pantsuits with the caption, "Hard choices". The post was a crack at her signature look and her 2014 memoir.

According to Huffington Post, the former secretary of state surpassed fellow candidates Senators Bernie Sanders (Democrat), Ted Cruz (Republican), Marco Rubio (Republican), Rand Paul (Republican) and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson (Republican) in the number of followers. With her single post, the former senator amassed 35,100 followers.

Paul, who has over a 100 posts, trails not so closely behind with nearly 27,000 followers.

Clinton's first Instagram post was not the only update to come from her campaign. On Wednesday (10 June), Clinton's campaign announced that two-time Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan was joining as a full-time paid staffer.

Kwan, who will be based in the campaign's Brooklyn headquarters, will be tasked with surrogate outreach ahead of Clinton's first official campaign rally on 13 June, according to ABC News. A campaign aide told reporters Kwan's focus will be to "help reach key constituencies and discuss the issues that matter most to working families."

The 34-year-old figure skating star has worked with Clinton before, ABC News noted. Kwan previously worked on surrogate outreach at the State Department as a public diplomacy envoy.

Despite facing several competitors for the Democratic nomination, Clinton remains the leading Democratic candidate. In the latest CNN/ORC poll, Clinton earned 60% support among Democratic voters. The May results represent a slight decline in support for Clinton, with fellow Democrat Bernie Sanders boosting his support from 5% in April to 10% in May.