Members of Congress join the rush to social media

About 80 percent of congressional lawmakers' websites now link to the members' Facebook and Twitter pages compared with just about 20 percent in 2009, according to a study.

Nearly 75 percent of members' sites that link to social media pages have updated those pages in the past week, according to the study from the Congressional Management Foundation. In the foundation's 2009 study, only 14 percent of members who linked to Facebook or Twitter profiles had updated them in the previous month.

Among the deficiencies the report noted:
-- 40 percent of congressional sites don't post links to legislation the member has sponsored;
-- 44 percent fail to provide information or links on the member's voting record; and
-- 67 percent don't offer detailed contact information, such as phone numbers or email addresses for constituent services, legislative questions or other specific queries.

Committee sites fared better, according to the report:
-- 90 percent include a hearing archive;
-- 87 percent link to committee reports and publications;
-- 85 percent include a committee schedule; and
-- 78 percent provide live or archived webcasts of hearings.