Facebook Changing the Political Landscape

The times are definitely changing. No longer are buttons that say “I Like Ike” or traditional door-to-door canvassing enough in the campaign world. In these times of fast-paced media, iPads, laptops and iPhones, candidates are turning to social media to gain approval and public support from voters.

Laura Phelps writes in the Miami Herald that many local and presidential candidates are putting a lot more stock into social media sites. Consultant Josh Koster, a managing partner at Chong and Koster, a progressive digital-media communications firm, said “campaign budgets used to be about two things: raising money and spending it on TV. But this year’s budgets reflect today’s new media market as more Americans go to the Internet for news. This is the first major election cycle that online strategy is receiving a large media budget for advertising.”

Michael Beach, a co-founder of the Republican digital-strategy firm Targeted Victory, estimates that approximately 25% of a candidate’s budget is designated for online strategies. He believes that while social media won’t fully replace commercial spots and voter recruitment campaigns, it will continue to have a larger role in the upcoming election and beyond.

Phelps brings up some interesting figures when it comes to politics and the internet. She states that, “60 percent of all U.S. adults and 76 percent of U.S. adult Internet users are on Facebook, according to the Pew Research Center.” Furthermore, “22 percent of adults online used social networking sites such as Facebook to connect with campaigns or learn about the election.”

“Facebook and social media make it much easier to organize to raise money and to engage supporters because successful campaigns ultimately are about social organizing,” said Andrew Rasiej, a co-founder of techPresident, a blog that covers how candidates use Web technology. “If a political conversation is happening on Facebook, then to be able to donate where the conversation is happening is key.”

Obviously Facebook and Twitter aren’t just affecting how people are socializing, but it also is impacting the political world and how voters are choosing to support their candidate. Fundly is proud to be a part of this monumental change on the electoral horizon with so much emphasis on social media, and we are excited to participate as a democracy and technology partner together to reach the masses. We have several candidates using our social fundraising platform to reach their supporters, collect donations,  and we would love to come aside your campaign to help you achieve your potential.