The influence of Web 2.0 on American politics

I find it interesting that Social Media Networks show Barack Obama and Ron Paul as leaders for the Presidency (when using amount of “friends” as a popularity metric), whereas every traditional poll conducted recently shows Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani having commanding leads.

What are your thoughts on this?

Is it that the amount of people using online channels is far smaller and irrelevant? Does this prove that the amount of “friends” is meaningless? Maybe its the fact that Barack Obama and Ron Paul supporters are younger and/or have a more open attitude towards social media?

Personally, I think its a combination of factors. The main one being that Barack Obama and Ron Paul supporters have a particular radical attitude. They want change, they are influencers and trend setters in society, they are more liberal, they use new media channels, they want a new leader with the same mindset.

So why do traditional polls not show these candidates at the top while social media networks do? Simple: In terms of raw numbers across the nation, their supporters are still the minority even though they comprise the majority of actively engaged online users.

For more on this topic read this blog entry