From our friends at Voter Gravity [1] comes the following Pew Research slide show on the role technology played in the 2012 election. Yes, yes, it’s a look back. But there are nuggets of information here that are worth reviewing — especially for those running campaigns in Virginia this year. A few worth noting:
* By October, 12 percent of people got their campaign news from Facebook. That put Facebook in the same league as national newspapers, NPR and late night comedy shows as a news source.
* Social networks have become a mainstream venue for political discussion and activism.
* Political engagement is now highly social and happens in real time.
Virginia’s political campaigns had best take these lessons to heart. Here’s the full slide show: