Harris Interactive: Users get election information through social networks

Social media plays an important role as an information channel in political elections. According to a survey by Harris Interactive, most social media users learn about candidates through Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.

The younger the social network users are, the more likely they are to use social groups to get political news. 62% of users aged 18-34 say they use social networks to get election information, and even 40% of users aged 55 and over rely on social networks for political discussions and updates. eMarketer estimates that about 44% of US Internet users aged 55-64 and 28% of Internet users aged 65 and over are social network users.

JFK is considered the first "TV-elected president," and the coming year will depend on the influence of Facebook and Twitter. As social networks become the mainstream way for people to collect information nowadays, it is not surprising that 92% of advertising agencies prefer to allocate election budgets to Facebook. STRATA surveyed 13 agencies with election business in December 2011 and 46% of them said they were more likely to use Twitter.

When it comes to how these users rate candidates, Pew's research shows that blogs and Twitter have become popular places for users to comment on voters. The research shows that Twitter is more personal and less neutral than blogs and news.