Social Media has so many advantages: it reaches a wide audience, a vast audience, and it is so easily accessible. One final advantage is the cost associated with a social media campaign. For the users, access to websites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and You Tube is free. And for the candidates, the cost if virtually nothing. According to ignitesocialmedia.com, the approximate amount of money that is spent on individual campaigns varies as much for any regular advertising or PR campaign. But bottom line, you can spend as little or as much as you want to get your message out. In fact, according to the Scribd article, Lessons from the Barack Obama Social Media Campaign, "the campaign's proclivity to online advocacy is a major reason for his victory. While it was such a success, they only spent about $2 million on tools that would help facilitate social networking operation.
The impact of such campaigns is addressed in the the former article as well. Over 13 million people were reached through e-mail alone. 5 million "friends" were reached through 15 different social networking sites, 3 million coming solely from Facebook. 8.5 people visited his website. His You Tube videos were watched 8 million times. And finally, 3 million people signed up to receive text message alerts. That's a whole lotta people being reached through new communication technology.
Acceptance, I think, pretty much goes hand in hand with impact. There wouldn't be so many people being impacted by these new methods if they weren't being accepted by the masses. In fact, Rumors and the Internet in the 2008 elections states that 2/3 of Americans received their news through online content, while almost 2 of 5 checked content every day. Checking up on multiple outlets and looking for content every day sure seems like acceptance to me. More like obsession! (Yes, I'm talking to all you, and by you I mean ME, Facebook enthusiasts.)
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