With an election campaign in full swing, candidates and politics pundits are increasingly taking their message to the online community, via social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
"With the rise of social media and online networking tools, the “community” exists online to a greater extent than ever before," freelance journalist and media commentator, Matthew De Neef says.
"Politicians have known for years that to neglect social media would be to neglect a significant percentage of the Australian population, especially younger voters.
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"As a result we've seen many politicians take the leap into the social networking pond in an attempt to better communicate with voters," he says.
The number of Australians visiting social media sites has ballooned in the last 12 months, with 70 per cent of Internet users now accessing them.
That is a rise of nearly 30 per cent from the same time in 2009.
Facebook was the most popular site, with over six million Australian visitors last year, according to Internet research company comScore.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is a late arrival on the social media bandwagon. She opened her Twitter account last month.
Regardless, the PM has alread accumulated almost 26,400 followers on the site – more than twice those of her Liberal opponent, Tony Abbott.
But the politicians who have embraced this new way of communicating aren't necessarily using it effectively.
"By using Twitter solely as a broadcast medium, a real opportunity is being missed by politicians," Mr De Neef says.
"Social media at its heart is about conversation, dialogue and sharing and politicians haven't really been using it in that way as yet."
The unfiltered, unmoderated nature of social media attracts politicians, some of whom appear to see the medium as a one-way communication channel.
"With social media, there's a real sense that people can say exactly what they want, to whom they want without being hung up on or refused publication," Mr De Neef says.
"With Twitter especially, they can say it directly to the politicians.
"Of course, there's no guarantee that Julia Gillard will read or respond to Joe Average's tweets, but in theory, this is a step toward an un-moderated conversation between politicians and their constituencies."
Some journalistic stalwarts believe the rise in social media spells the end of traditional campaigning, but Mr De Neef says those fears are unfounded.
"Traditional means of covering the election won't die out soon, at least not in the foreseeable future," he says.
"Australia's older generations don't use social media or online sources when deciding who to vote for and so to run an exclusively-online campaign would be political suicide.
"While online election coverage is certainly on the rise, traditional methods will still form the bulk of our exposure to elections in years to come, Mr De Neef says.
