Hey do you know that today is election day? As you can see from the blog title, and perhaps redirected from Facebook; social media and election day have become pretty intertwined. So it’s likely you know today is election day. Why has social media and election day been such bosom buddies?

Why has social media and election day been such bosom buddies?

It has a lot to do with how people use social media; particularly Facebook, and how campaigns try and reach voters. Before the 2008 election, the best way to reach a voter was to use traditional media. This was an attempt to interrupt a person’s activity to convey a brief message. These tactics included using direct mail, lawn signs, billboards and television commercials. All which interrupt activities such as collecting the mail, taking a walk or drive and watching a primetime TV show.

However, in 2008, Facebook started to become a medium political campaigns could use to reach voters. The reason social media is a good way to reach voters is due to the amount of time people spend using them. Today each Facebook users spends about 12 min and 26 seconds every day on Facebook. That may not sound like a lot but it is 16% of all the time spent on the Internet by users in the United States. Facebook is rapidly becoming the place where people start and finish their day. 48% of 18-34 year olds check Facebook when they wake up and 28% do it before they even get out of bed, so it should be no surprise that 48% of this demographic gets their news now from Facebook.

Political campaigns know using Facebook is now a proven way to reach the people who are in your core voter audience and remind them that they must register to vote or go to the polls and vote for their candidates. By connecting with the voter, on both their mobile and desktop, it’s not surprising to see that election day turnouts have been heavy as more people are reached to go to the polls.