The upcoming presidential election is being looked as the Second Social Media Decision after 2008. Last time Twitter was only in it's second year, Facebook was just starting to explode and Social Media was still conisidered something to compliment your business or brand strategy rather than an essential tool to leverage.
In 2008 you would hear businesses and brands discuss the need of having a Social Media "Presence" more often than you would hear of having a Social Media "Strategy." Social Media has matured and new tools and analytics are being used to obtain insights on this year's elections such as CNN and Facebook's Tracker and 140Elect.com's 2012twit.com Tracker.
On location in the Tampa Convention Center and via Google+ Hangout NBC News' Lou Dubois and Alex Johnson, The Grio's Joy Reid, The Wall Street Journal's Liz Heron and Google's Daniel Seidberg discuss the second coming of the "Social Media Elections" and take a look at the evolution of Social Media as it pertains to tools and innovations in the political landscape.
Check out the CNN Facebook Tracker:
http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/facebook-insights/
2012 Candidate Twitter Tracker: