Republicans may be winning the social media war

Republicans may have pulled ahead of Democrats in the race to dominate the social media landscape, according to a Congressional Management Foundation report.

In a survey of 260 Congressional staffers between October and December of 2010, Democrats reported their offices spent too little time in online communications when compared with their Republican colleagues. A quarter to a third of Republican staffers reported their offices spent too little time on Facebook, Twitter and online town hall meetings, among others. But Democrats posted much higher numbers of discontent across the board, ranging from 32 to 42 percent. “In every single category of online activity, Democrats feel…that their office spends too little time on online communications,” said Bradford Fitch, president and CEO of CMF. “Other studies have shown that, in terms of volume, Republicans were certainly more active on Twitter, but it was surprising to us that the Democrats feel that way in every category,” he added. Fitch compared the findings with research of Congressional websites that showed Senate Democrats and House Republicans dominated earlier in the decade, a lead that took years to balance out.