Social media played a key role in the 2008 elections; how much bigger will it be in 2012?
Four years ago, social media burst on the scene as a vital communications tool for both voters and politicians. Back then, there were just over 44 million Facebook users and only 3.4 million Twitter users in the U.S., according to this infographic from MDG Advertising; now, just four years later, there are more than 143 Facebook users and 24 million Twitter users.*
These numbers might differ from other estimates of active users, because various sources define active users in various ways. But the bottom line is, social media usage has exploded since the last election---in fact, today roughly 4 in 5 American adults use social media, and most of them are voters. And as we reported last week, 82% of all U.S. adults are predicted to get most of their election news from the Internet.
This week's infographic tracks the meteoric growth of social media since the last election and forecasts how it will be used and the impact it will make in this year's vote.
View the entire graphic after the jump.
* Data represents Internet users age 18+ who access their Facebook/Twitter account at least once a month, according to eMarketer
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