The Internet is becoming an increasingly important part of political campaigns. If anyone has any doubt about that, all they have to do is glance at the numbers from a new survey conducted by Burst Media.
When it comes to getting political information in the US, the Web now surpasses all other media.
Surveying over 900 potential online voters, Burst found that more of them (26.8%) picked the Internet as the best place to learn about a candidate's position on election issues or to research general election issues than any other medium.
Television ranked second, with 20.5% of potential voters stating it was the best place to learn about the issues, followed by newspapers, radio and pamphlets/brochures/direct mail. Magazines were in last place, picked as most important by only 2.8% of respondents.
Not only are voters going online to find information, online political ads are having an impact, too.
Nearly one-quarter (23.7%) of the likely voters in the Burst survey said they have clicked on a Web advertisement for a political candidate or issue advocacy group.
Among these "clickers," 43.6% have clicked only on an advocacy group advertisement, 29.9% clicked only on a candidate's advertisement and 26.45% clicked on both.
Men, at 27.4%, are somewhat more likely than women, at 20.1%, to have clicked on a political ad.
"This is a powerful argument for candidates and advocacy groups to use the Internet to communicate their ideas to potential voters," said Chuck Moran of Burst. "Their websites are important destinations to influences voters and ads are very effective at getting voters more actively involved with candidates and issues."
Backing that statement up, the survey found that two out of five likely voters have visited a candidate's Website during the current election season, and slightly more than a third have visited an issue advocacy group's Website.
Another strong argument for communicating to voters online rather than through other media is interactivity — the direct and immediate involvement it offers.
The survey found that of those who clicked on an advocacy group's ad, over two-thirds read more about the group, and nearly half signed an online petition. And that is not all: 19% signed up to be a member, nearly 18% made a donation and almost 14% volunteered to aid the cause or candidate.