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ALBUQUERQUE — Pew released a massive (pdf) piece of polling data today in their annual Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes report. Included in that report is a section on social networking.
Social media networks obviously skew young; 70 percent of 18-29-year-olds have used a social media service at least once. But even those older than 30 are still using social media at a pretty high rate — 43 percent of 30-39-year-olds is still a significant number. And 29 percent of those in their 40s is almost even more impressive.
While the use of social media may be at or nearing a plateau among 18-29-year-olds, growing just three percent over the past two years, the 30-39-year-old demographic and 40-49-year-old demographic have shown huge leaps, of 22 percent and 18 percent, respectively.
And once people begin to use social networks, they all like to check in on them frequently — often on a daily basis.
Looking at these numbers, 43 percent of all people who are on social networks (social networkers, Pew calls them) check in on them daily.
There are 19 percent who check in multiple times a day. And the vast majority (82 percent) check in at least once a week.
Pew summarizes:
Nearly a quarter of social networkers who are younger than 30 (23%) say they use these sites several times a day, while another 25% use them about once a day. Social networkers in their 30s check in with only somewhat less frequency; 15% use sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter several times a day, while 26% check about once a day. The figures are similar for social networkers 40 and older.
So what does this mean politically? Well, a politician now must not only have a Web site, but also a Facebook page and YouTube account at the least. President Barack Obama has an account on every social networking site for both himself and the White House (for example his personal Facebook page and the White House Facebook page.
How is our congressional delegation doing on this front?
| MySpace | YouTube | |||
| Sen. Bingaman | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Sen. Udall | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Rep. Heinrich | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Rep. Lujan | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Rep. Teague | Yes* | No | No | No |
There are caveats to some of these, however. Every single one of U.S. Sen. Tom Udall’s accounts are from his campaign and not from being a newly elected Democratic senator. None have updated their MySpace accounts since the election (though I don’t blame them on that, since I rarely go to my MySpace page).
U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, a Hobbs Democrat, created a Facebook page, but did nothing on it, not even making a status update.
Facebook may be the best way, at least on a social network, for politicians to let their constituents know what is going on. Even if it is just saying that he is glad Obama was in Rio Rancho, U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, a Santa Fe Democrat, gets some reaction from his constituents who are on Twitter. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich, an Albuquerque Democrat, has been doing good work on Facebook as well, highlighting funding coming to New Mexico and his bills in Congress.
Heinrich also gets extra points for having his House Web site link to both his YouTube and his Flickr accounts – but not his Facebook page.
And New Mexico’s senior senator, Jeff Bingaman, features a YouTube video on his Senate Web site.
For many politicians, social media isn’t a top priority — but it is increasingly part of their communications strategies. That’s because it is a relatively easy and completely free way to reach a young, technologically-connected audience that may not watch the evening news or read the Albuquerque Journal.
And with people increasingly going to the Internet to find out information, this is another way for them to get the word out on their issues.
Those that start working on it now won’t have to start working on it in a few years when that 33 percent of adults who use social networks rises to 43 percent or 53 percent.
And in this modern world, it isn’t only politicians that need to have a full social network. For any individual belonging to a group or organization, using social media is fast becoming just another way to communicate with group members or with the public in general.
NMI’s Twitter account is at @NMIndependent.
