Facebook leaps ahead of Twitter and YouTube among freshmen

By Christina Wilkie - 02/23/11 01:05 PM ET

When it comes to preferred means of social media, the freshmen of the 112th Congress have a lot in common with high school and college freshmen. More of them have accounts on Facebook than any other site, followed by Twitter, then YouTube.

According to an analysis by Roy

Hanouka, founder of the burgeoning congressional Web media tracking site Polwire, “Out of a total of 109 new Congress members, 93 are on Facebook, 85 operate Twitter accounts and 72 have accounts with YouTube.”

Hanouka pointed out that some new members set up their social sites “even before setting up their formal websites.”

A senior aide to a freshman GOP member of Congress said the reason for that was time, not online priorities. “Have you ever tried to set up a Facebook page? It takes a couple of minutes. A formal legislative homepage? A couple of weeks.”

To wit, Polwire has assembled a site for anyone who has ever wished that congressional social media platforms could all finally be in one place. They’ve even got a new page for the freshman class. Find

Polwire at www.polwire.com.