{"id":25258,"date":"2011-01-26T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2011\/01\/26\/twitter-and-social-networking-in-the-2010-midterm-elections\/"},"modified":"2024-04-13T23:49:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T04:49:49","slug":"twitter-and-social-networking-in-the-2010-midterm-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2011\/01\/26\/twitter-and-social-networking-in-the-2010-midterm-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter and Social Networking in the 2010 Midterm Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">by Aaron Smith, Senior Research Specialist, Pew Internet &amp; American Life Project<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"overview\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Overview<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some 21% of online adults used social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace in the months leading up to the November 2010 elections to connect with a campaign or the election itself, and 2% of online adults did so using Twitter. That works out to a total of 22% of adult internet users who engaged with the political campaign on Twitter or social networking sites in at least one of the following ways:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>11% of online adults discovered on a social networking site who their friends voted for in the November elections.<\/li>\n<li>9% of online adults received candidate or campaign information on social networking sites or Twitter.<\/li>\n<li>8% of online adults posted political content on Twitter or a social networking site.<\/li>\n<li>7% of online adults friended a candidate or political group on a social networking site or followed them on Twitter.<\/li>\n<li>7% of online adults started or joined a political group on a social networking site.<\/li>\n<li>1% of online adults used Twitter to follow the election results as they were happening.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Republicans, who lagged behind Democrats in the 2008 campaign in some key aspects of social media use, caught up with Democrats in the 2010 midterm election cycle. The &#8220;political social media user&#8221; cohort represented by the 22% of internet users voted for Republican congressional candidates over Democratic candidates by a 45%-to-41% margin, and Republicans&#8217; enthusiasm for using social media matched that of Democrats.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: center\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"vertical-align: bottom\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/old-assets\/publications\/1871-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"332\"><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among social networking site users, 40% of Republican voters and 38% of Democratic voters used these sites to get involved politically. In addition, Tea Party movement supporters were especially likely to friend a candidate or political group on a social networking site during the 2010 election &#8212; 22% of such users did this, significantly higher than all other groups.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: center\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"vertical-align: bottom\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/old-assets\/publications\/1871-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"504\" height=\"341\"><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Compared with the rest of the online population (i.e. those who go online but did not use Twitter or social networking sites for political purposes in 2010) the &#8220;political social media&#8221; user group differs in some respects from other internet users:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Political social media users stand out for their overall use of technology<\/strong>. They are significantly more likely than other internet users to go online wirelessly from a cell phone or laptop (91% vs. 67%), own a laptop computer (79% vs. 63%), have a high-speed broadband connection (94% vs. 80%) and use the internet on their cell phone (61% vs. 40%).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Demographically, political social media users are younger and somewhat more educated than other internet users<\/strong>. Two-in-five (42%) are younger than age 30 (vs. 22% for the rest of the online population) and 41% have a college degree (34% of other internet users have graduated from college). However, they look quite similar to the rest of the online population in their racial, gender and income composition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/Reports\/2011\/Politics-and-social-media.aspx\">Continue reading the full report at pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than one-in-five online Americans engaged with the 2010 midterm elections or campaign on Twitter or social networking sites; Republicans &#8212; especially Tea Party supporters &#8212; caught up with Democrats in social media use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"bylines":[2134],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[],"workflow-status":[],"collection":[],"class_list":["post-25258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","bylines-tom-rosentiel","formats-report","regions-countries-united-states"],"label":"Report","post_parent":0,"word_count":452,"canonical_url":"http:\/\/pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/Reports\/2011\/Politics-and-social-media.aspx","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"prc_checklist":{"prc-image-alt-text":{"status":"complete","message":"No image blocks in content.","data":null},"prc-about-this-research":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add an \"About this research\" details block.","data":null},"prc-paragraph-count":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 6 paragraphs.","data":{"count":6}},"prc-internal-link":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add at least one internal link.","data":{"count":0}}},"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"report_materials":[],"report_pagination":{"current_post":null,"next_post":null,"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Twitter and Social Networking in the 2010 Midterm Elections","parent_id":25258},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Twitter and Social Networking in the 2010 Midterm Elections","description":"More than one-in-five online Americans engaged with the 2010 midterm elections or campaign on Twitter or social networking sites; 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