Obama No Longer Leads The Pack On Social Media

The White House took what can best be described as a "blitzkrieg" approach to social media for President Obama's State of the Union address. There were live question-and-answer sessions, Twitter exchanges and the president will take questions via YouTube. Of course, the Obama social media operation was a juggernaut during the 2008 campaign. On Facebook and Twitter, in text messages and on YouTube, there was no comparison between Republicans and Democrats. So the reality just two years later is striking: In social media, Republicans have caught up. That's the conclusion of a report released by the Pew Research Center. "Lots more people — including Republicans, independents, supporters of the Tea Party — are just as active in this space as Democrats used to be," says Lee Rainie, director of Pew's Internet and American Life Project. "So the Democratic advantage, in some sense, is being washed away by the mainstreaming of the populations who are using these tools."