For politicians, the most important thing is to get voters' support, and the way to reach out to the voters is traditionally going through major TV networks. For scores of years, politicians have heavily relied on TV networks to win voter support either through news coverage or advertising.

However, the tradition was broken by Barack Obama when he first ran for the U.S. presidency in 2008. While still depending on traditional media such as TV networks and newspapers, Obama paid much attention to social networking sites.

Obama is not the first candidate to use social networking sites. Before him, in the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Howard Dean who was widely tipped to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, started to use the Internet heavily for his election campaign. He read blogs, organized rallies through meetup.com and emailed people to organize events. News archives from 2004 showed thousands of articles on how amazing his use of the Internet was.

Howard Dean failed in the election, but his use of the Internet has proved effective. In 2008 the landscape has changed dramatically. In four years social media got rapid development, and Internet usage in general has skyrocketed. In 2004 it was a teenage novelty, four years later it has become the main way friends and family communicate on-line. Barack Obama's campaign team used social media better than anyone else and it gave them a huge advantage.

Obama had more Facebook fans than his competitor. The number of Obama supporters on Facebook on election day in 2008 was 3 million, while the number of the Republican candidate John McCain supporters on Facebook on election day was 600,000.

Comparing with traditional media, social networking sites are more personal, all the fans are friends and they can communicate each other, although not face-to-face, but through the Internet the videos and voices play the role. It is two-way communication rather than one way.

The 2012 U.S. presidential campaign is expected to be more social networking oriented. Obama decided to use social networking sites instead of the traditional media to announce his re-election bid on April 4.

Obama made the announcement in an email to supporters, accompanied by a video on YouTube.

"We're doing this now because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV ads or extravaganzas, but with you -- with people organizing block-by-block, talking to neighbors, co- workers, and friends. And that kind of campaign takes time to build," Obama wrote in the email

Last Wednesday, President Obama traveled to California to have a town hall meeting at the headquarters of Facebook, the hugely popular social networking site.

"The main reason we wanted to do this is, first of all, because more and more people, especially young people, are getting their information through different media. And obviously what all of you have built together is helping to revolutionize how people get information, how they process information, how they're connecting with each other," said Obama through live broadcast on Facebook.

"And historically, part of what makes for a healthy democracy, what is good politics, is when you've got citizens who are informed, who are engaged. And what Facebook allows us to do is make sure this isn't just a one-way conversation; makes sure that not only am I speaking to you but you're also speaking back and we 're in a conversation, were in a dialogue. So I love doing town hall meetings. This format and this company I think is an ideal means for us to be able to carry on this conversation," said the U. S. president.

Obama has about 20 million Facebook fans on his personal page, and the White House official page has another 975,000 fans.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said that in this age of Twitter, YouTube and dwindling viewership of broadcast evening news, a president must use every resource available.

"It's a mix of traditional media, new media, national media, regional media," Carney told reporters. "You've got to reach Americans where they are."

Republicans, who usually lag behind than Democrats in using social networking sites, have now realized the importance to use the new media. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is working hard on social networking sites and has 2,911,000 Facebook fans.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney announced his 2012 campaign on Twitter, and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has taped a series of videos for YouTube. They are looking to borrow from Obama's earlier campaign's techniques.

Politicians at federal and local levels have also relied heavily on social networking sites to communicate with voters.

Judy Chu, the first Chinese American woman in the U.S. Congress, told Xinhua that she does indeed have Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts and her office uses them very regularly.

The Congresswoman's Facebook page has been up for over a year and the number of fans is in the thousands. The Twitter account is more recent, opened within the last year and like the Facebook page is still growing.

These are great tools that Congresswoman Chu uses to connect with voters of all different ages and backgrounds. It allows her a direct avenue to respond to questions from constituents in real time.

For example, she said that just a few weeks ago when the country was facing the government shutdown, a constituent asked on her Facebook account whether Congressional members would still be getting paid if the government shut down.

Chu said she was able to immediately reply that she believed Congressional members should forego their pay in that situation and vowed that, if there were a shutdown, she would donate her salary to charity.

"That is just one example of the openness, transparency and access that social media provides to constituents when dealing with their elected officials," she said.

She said she has used the Facebook and Twitter accounts to let her comment on legislation as it is being debated, to call attention to press releases and events in her district, and to retweet other posts of interest to her and her constituents.

"They have become indispensable tools in the political and government arena," she said.

Mike Eng, Assemblyman in California, told Xinhua that he has over 2,000 Facebook fans now and the number is increasing. He is using Facebook to post press releases, event photos and to communicate with constituents and members of the community.

Eng said he uses those social networking sites to inform the general public or his friends what's happening in the State Capitol and it will get young people more involved because they are more used to this new method of communication. 

Source: Xinhua