The 2008 US presidential elections will go down in history as the “social media election” – On election day that year, there were 1.8 million tweets about the presidency.
But this year, in 2012, social media will be even more pervasive. Today there are 1.8 million tweets every 6 minutes, of which 2 million tweets per week mention both presidential candidates. During the 2012 Democratic National Convention, President Barack Obama inspired 52,756 tweets every minute, while the First Lady Michelle Obama elicited over 28,000 per minute during her speech (far outstripping Mitt Romney’s 14,289 per minute during his speech at the Republican National Convention).
And we haven’t even mentioned Facebook yet. So yes, social media is so ingrained in politics that 9 out of 10 US senators and representatives have Twitter accounts. Will social media choose the next US president?
We think it might.
Here’s an infographic that shows you the impact social media has on politics:
[Infographic created by: Open-Site.org]
