"Thirty-five minutes to go-every vote is needed!" read Angle's Facebook page shortly before polls closed. "You, your neighbor, your mother-in-law ... GET OUT & vote, NV!"
Reid, who was also exhorting his followers to relay his messages online, ultimately prevailed. But the postings showed that at the most crucial moments in the 2010 election, social media was in the thick of it.
For an entity that effectively didn't exist just years ago, social media has rapidly flourished as a political force.
"This is the election when it became more deeply embedded in the rhythms of campaigning," says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. "It's not so much that as a single thing it influences people's votes but that it's now so inextricably a part of the political communication landscape."
The 2010 elections may also have been when Republicans truly embraced it. The change was evident at the finale, when House Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner tweeted congratulations to a litany of triumphant Republicans and fellow Twitter users.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin played an active role in the elections with posts on Facebook that were instant news; the 10 most popular political videos on YouTube were all Republican videos.
"There was much hand-wringing over whether the Internet was a fundamentally democratic or liberal platform for communication, versus a conservative one," says Steve Grove, the head of news and politics at YouTube. "We always felt like the reason that it was more used by Democrats was just they weren't the party in power, and parties not in power look for innovation when trying to communicate with voters in new ways."
GOP Capitalizes On Social Media
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