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Report: Republicans Won Social Media Battle During Midterm Elections

by Amar Toor on January 28, 2011 at 02:35 PM

Republicans November's midterm elections saw the Republican party reassert its power in Washington, thanks to landslide victories at voting booths throughout the country. And, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center, the GOP did pretty well on Facebook, too.

In the months leading up to the November elections, 22-percent of all online adults used social media to follow a particular campaign or the election itself, including two-percent who used Twitter to keep up with the latest news. According to Pew's report, 11-percent of Internet-using adults used social networking sites to find out who their friends were voting for, while seven-percent either 'friended' a political candidate on Facebook or followed one on Twitter.

Among social networking political junkies, 45-percent favored Republican candidates, compared to the 41-percent who supported the Democratic ticket -- which, strangely enough, was the exact same proportion of users with a college degree. Both Republicans and Democrats displayed largely equal levels of enthusiasm for social media, but Tea Party supporters, in their infinite excitement, were much more likely to 'friend' a candidate on Facebook.

Tags: Democrats, facebook, midterm elections, MidtermElections, politics, polls, republicans, SocialNetworking, tea party, TeaParty, top, twitter, vote, Web

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