14 DAY TRIAL // With more than half a billion tweets sent every day, it cannot be denied that Twitter plays an important role for people around the world and that they are somehow influenced by its content.
According to NDTV Gadgets, a recent study shows that Twitter can actually influence people, youngsters in particular, to vote during the elections.
With more than 3000 people with ages between 18 and 34 taking part in the survey, it was proven that about half of the people had found out and had become interested in voting for a certain candidate via Twitter.
How Twitter could become an important tool for politicians
Based on the findings of this recent study, it is very likely that candidates will take to Twitter to persuade people to vote for them, in case they haven't done this by now. It was quite unexpected to find out that the social network had such a great influence on determining who will win in an election.
Regarding the results of this study, Adam Sharp, Twitter’s global head of news, government and elections, declared for The Guardian, “With more than three-quarters [78%] of MPs already on the platform, along with every major news outlet and political party in the country, we know Twitter is where the live conversation about the election is happening.”
Many politicians have Twitter profiles, which makes it easier for them to reach out to their voters. One such famous case is that of President Barack Obama, who just happens to be the politician with the largest number of followers on the platform.
However, it is very unlikely that politicians themselves actually manage their accounts, write their tweets or even read themselves what their supporters write to them.
This study also shows how much social networking sites, in general, can influence the opinions of users and how they can be used as political weapons by witty politicians.
Given that youngsters spend most of their time on-line on different social platforms, it is only natural that this should be their main way of obtaining information on any type of matters, be it political or not.
It remains to be seen how politicians will make use of Twitter in their upcoming political campaigns and what kind of response they will receive.