Is Social Media Making a Significant Splash in the Political Arena?

  • While Pew Research says Facebook and Twitter will play “modest roles” in the next presidential election, it is hard to ignore signs to the contrary, suggests author and former hedge fund manager Andy Kessler.
  • Last election, Facebook had only 50 million users compared to 845 million today. President Obama’s Twitter followers have grown from 4 million to 12 million users.
  • Facebook and Twitter have closely followed politically-influenced opinions, events and people including Rick Perry’s “oops,” Obama girl, Obama’s insider deals at DOE, and the Republican primaries.
  • Moreover, political affiliations can be determined by one’s likes and tweets making users a target for political advertising and promotion.
  • Social media may also be used to influence opinion leaders and grow ideas into blog stories that will eventually make their way into mainstream media.
  • “Those with social-media ‘influence’ are most likely to help campaigns convert interest into votes. Finding them in the haystack of the real world is tedious and expensive,” comments Kessler in the Wall Street Journal. “But harnessing fast servers and constantly upgraded algorithms to find them on social networks is already happening — and it’ll definitely sway who becomes our next president.”

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