Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN — Holding courthouse rallies and kissing babies? That’s old-school.

Twenty-first century politicians are increasingly turning to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to get their message to the voters — particularly the younger generation.

Gov. Rick Perry and his probable Republican primary challenger, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, are relying heavily on Internet venues, as are scores of other Texas politicians. Perry describes the new media as a "game changer."

"Social media, I will suggest, is going to do the same thing to communications that the Internet 10 did years ago," Perry said in a brief interview last week just after posting photos from a ceremonial bill signing on his Twitter site.

With the state’s 2010 election season already unfolding, candidates for virtually every office are tweeting and friending across the Internet, emulating techniques that helped propel Barack Obama into the White House.

"It’s a fast train, and politicians who don’t use it are left behind at their peril," said Ben Agger, a professor of sociology and humanities at the University of Texas at Arlington who has written books and articles detailing the social impact of the new media.

Fort Worth attorney Tom Schieffer, a Democrat who formally entered the race for governor last month, has ramped up his Twitter and Facebook sites. Two other Democratic hopefuls — Austin-based author-entertainer Kinky Friedman and Garland therapist Mark Thompson — also use the networking forums.

Social networking sites, candidates say, offer a multitude of benefits: They are quick, largely free or inexpensive, reach vast audiences and enable politicians to talk directly to the public without being filtered by traditional media.

Underdog candidates call the sites great equalizers, enabling them to tap into the electorate without the need for expensive consultants or massive ad buys.

"I don’t think there is any question it’s going to give us an edge that we didn’t have before," said Houston-area Republican Debra Medina, who describes herself as a "David" against "Goliaths" Perry and Hutchison in the GOP gubernatorial race.

New information age

The political power of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social venues reflects the still evolving upheaval in the mass media as electronic communications threaten to surpass newspapers, magazines and other print publications as primary sources of information.

A prime user of the new media is what Agger calls "the pulpless generation," post-baby boomers who are tied together on the Internet and increasingly eschew print media and television as their premier news sources.

In a poll released last week by University of Texas researchers about where Texans hear or take part in conversations about politics, 27 percent named online social networks such as MySpace or Facebook, and 18 percent said blogs. Eighty-one percent said friends or relatives, and 54 percent said the workplace. There were 12 categories in all.

Targeting young voters

The changing demographics have prompted campaigns to make an unprecedented push toward younger voters, who have a mixed record of political participation over the past two decades. Hutchison’s campaign has formed a Generation K program embracing voters under 30, who are often described as the "Internet generation."

"From a political standpoint, we look at this as not only an immediate way to talk to supporters but it’s also a new way for us to identify potential new voters out there," Hutchison spokesman Hans Klingler said in describing the campaign’s accelerating use of the Internet.

Although candidates generally agree that traditional retail efforts such as rallies, phone banks and knocking on doors remain an integral part of campaigning, social networking adds a muscular dimension that was barely in its infancy just a few years ago.

A major benefit is immediacy. "It’s not some press release that comes out once a day," Klingler said. "It’s all day long."

Varying techniques

Hutchison’s campaign used Twitter last week to announce that it has 6,500 donors. Two videos on YouTube thanked supporters.

As of late last week, Hutchison had 5,100 friends on Facebook and 900 followers on Twitter.

Hutchison’s Twitter dispatches are prepared by staff. Perry has a personal Twitter account, with over 12,800 followers as of last week, in which he writes tweets and transmits photos from his BlackBerry. The governor’s office and the campaign have separate Twitter sites. Additionally, interns in the governor’s office have a Twitter site called Interns4Perry.

Perry also uses personal tweets to offer a broad array of snippets about his family and daily activities. His Twitter followers learned, for instance, that he was "healing properly" after he broke a collarbone in a bicycle accident.

"Having lunch at Wunsche Bros. In Spring, TX historic old town and great burgers," Perry wrote in a recent tweet. Tweets are limited to 140 characters.

"There are more people that know Rick Perry the person now than Rick Perry the public official," the governor said in describing the impact of his Internet presence, which also includes more than 8,500 Facebook supporters. "I think that’s very positive."

Candidates say social networking sites are no substitute for old-fashioned political charisma.

"If your candidate can’t excite the grass roots, I don’t think Twitter is going to save you," said Friedman, who is still in the exploratory phase of a bid for governor.