There is no denying that the Internet has had a profound impact on this U.S. Presidential race. I have discussed this at length in a previous article. Google has contributed a lot to this, but they are by no means the only Internet entity that has played a role.
Another one is Facebook. The social network (even if they don’t call themselves that) has grown tremendously in popularity over the last year or so, and continues to do so. Many of the network’s patrons have been using it as a platform to share content related to the elections, and not only the Presidential election as ABC News points out, but local/state elections as well.
“The Obama team got into Facebook early in the campaign, and more than 2 million users have signed on as Obama supporters,” writes Bianna Golodryga at ABC. “The McCain camp has rallied more than 600,000 Facebook supporters of its own. A team of campaign workers are dedicated to reaching them with messages, getting the word out to an unlimited number of users, but it’s not just the big race — Facebook is having a significant impact on local races, too.”
Golodryga quotes Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg: “In some ways Facebook can be even more influential to local campaigns and politicians…Because those are places where a few thousand votes really matter and a few thousand votes can really swing a race.”
I see no reason why the same thing can’ be said of MySpace and other social networks as well. It’s really a testament to how social media in general has played a role in the discussion and shaping of opinions of political candidates.
