Do you vote social?

Since Estonia became the first country to hold an online general election in 2005, the way people vote has been shaped by online and social networks. Nokia Connects investigates…

via gizmodo

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Weibo, YouTube…. Social networks have become about so much more than simply connecting people, and today whenever an election takes place somewhere in the world, you can be sure that there will be a parallel, online version of the same debates and arguments evolving in cyberspace.

But as well as tracking and contributing to the election debates in many countries, social media have also become a new and highly interactive way for people to shape the future of their countries. Politicians are now beginning to realise the potential of this social demographic, and to tap into it with tweetups and Facebook groups.

via social.ogilvy

Korea recently clued up on the value of social media during an election period, by making it legal to encourage people to vote on voting day through social media. As a result, the country saw an 8.2 per cent increase in the number of voters than previous elections.

All of this is not even to mention the fact that social media and online voting have opened the electoral process like never before to people living in remote and rural parts of the world. Now that you can vote using your phone, more and more people are having their voices heard right across the globe.

So the question is: Do you vote social?