With voters heading to the polls this week this infographic is rather timely. I am lucky enough to not have to suffer through too many political ads because I don’t have a TV. However, social media is part of my job and my life in general so it’s impossible to escape political posts in my Facebook news feed or in my Twitter stream. Indeed, I follow Barack Obama on both Facebook and Twitter and hardly a day goes by where I miss out on a piece of propaganda turned out from his crack digital team. I’ll admit I didn’t watch a single second of the recent presidential debates, but I basically got the gist from all the memes and post-debate online chatter.

Take a look at the infographic below to see how social media has impacted this election so far. First, a few stats that jump out at me. For one, 9 out of 10 Senators and Representatives now have a Twitter account. Of course, these accounts are mostly being run by the campaign team or other staffers, but I think this still helps to emphasize the importance of social media in the overall strategy of politicians. Other stats that really jump out at me are based on the sheer volume of Tweets this year’s election has sparked. Barack Obama inspired over 52,000 tweets per second during the 2012 DNC–4 million tweets during his 39 minute speech. The first presidential debate even saw a quarter million mentions for “Big Bird.”

After you skim through the stats below, think about how social media has played a role in shaping your opinions. Would you be voting differently without social media?

Created by: Open-Site.org