Report: GOP catches up to Dems on social media

Adults who used social media to engage for the midterm elections voted for Republicans over Democrats by a narrow margin, showing the GOP has caught up to Democrats online.

A new report from Pew's Internet and American Life project shows 21 percent of online adults used social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace to get information on a campaign or the election, while another 2 percent did so on Twitter. In total, 22 percent of adults engaged politically using social media.

Those political social-media users favored Republican congressional candidates over Democrats by a margin of 45 to 41 percent. Enthusiasm between the two parties for using social media was even, though Tea Party supporters were significantly more likely to "friend" a candidate.

Eleven percent of adults online used social media to find out how their friends voted, while 9 percent received campaign information over social networks. Eight percent posted political content themselves.

Political social-media users also tend to be younger and better educated than other Web users, with 42 percent under the age of 30, and 41 percent holding a college degree.