Millions of Americans will have another reason to use the internet - web hosting provider explains.

Presidential Campaigns Boost Internet Traffic

“Hail To The Chief” may not be your favorite tune until you consider that millions of Americans will turn to the internet in the coming months as a source of information about the upcoming presidential campaign. And internet traffic is a good thing for ecommerce owners, regardless of what generated it.
   
Through the years there have been many predictions about the impact of the internet on politics. Is the internet an objective forum to bring people together or is it a wedge for political strife? To understand how technology might reshape politics now and in the years ahead, consider what we’ve learned from past expereinces of online campaigning.

According to a 2008 survey conducted by the PEW Internet and American Life Project, 24% of Americans regularly learn something about the campaign from the internet. (That is almost double the percentage at a comparable point in the 2004 campaign.)

So how exactly does the web influence voters?

Web hosting provider lists two interesting assumptions from a 2008 PEW survey:

• The Internet combats political apathy and brings new voters to the polls. The jury is still out on this one. There are some studies that seem to indicate that people who obtain political news and information online are more likely to have voted than people who don’t get such information online.
• The internet causes people to vote. Not exactly. It could be that politically active citizens who always vote are simply more likely to scour the Web for additional insight or political ammunition. In the hotly contested 2004 election, a post-election survey conducted by PEW found that partisan identification exerted a big pull toward the voting booth. Those with strong connections to any party are very likely to vote, especially in campaigns where the perceived stakes are high. In the 2004 post-election survey, people with college educations were twice as likely to use the internet to gain political information as those without degrees.

Fully two thirds of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 say they use social networking sites, and more than a quarter in this age group (27%) say they have  gotten information about candidates and the campaign from these sites. Nearly one in ten of people under the age of 30 that were surveyed said they have signed up as a “friend” of one of the candidates on a site. 

As you might expect, the use of social networking sites for political activity is far less common among older voters, even those in their 30s. About one in five people aged 30 - 39 (21%) use social networking sites, however only 4% of the people in this age group say they have gotten campaign information from these sites and only 3% have “friended” a candidate.

Which party uses email to trade politically based messages? Web hosting provider explains...

Interestingly, Republicans are slightly more likely than Democrats or Independents to report having traded politically based email messages with family and friends. Beyond that there are no clear partisan lines that can be drawn. Looking ahead it is clear that the internet’s role in politics will continue evolving as the technology improves and users continually adapt it for new purposes.

So what this mean to you as an ecommerce owner? It means that millions of Americans will have yet another compelling reason to use the internet in the coming months. And anything that draws people to the internet in vast numbers strengthens the web’s position as a household necessity (thereby increasing the likelihood that they will perform other tasks online – like shopping.) Talk to your web hosting provider and make sure your site is in stellar condition and in a constant state of readiness to accommodate voters of any party persuasion with a desire to shop.  

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