WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Republican presidential candidates are turning to the Internet, spending million of dollars on political ads with Google, Facebook and Twitter, analysts say.
Tech entities are providing candidates new venues for ads, hiring political consultants and sponsoring debates in a competition for the top spot in political social media circles -- and the ad dollars that follow.
"This is the Twitter election," Peter Greenberger of Twitter's political ad sales team told Politico. "We'll be a core component."
For its part Google has expanded its effort to work directly with campaigns to come up with ad strategies, and says every Republican presidential candidate has already bought in.
Candidates are increasing using YouTube, the Web's biggest online video network -- which is owned by Google -- to post short ad spots and commercials.
And Facebook allows campaigns to target voters of a specific demographic with specific interests because users of the social media site volunteer their personal information.
"It's so much more competitive this time around" between the social media sites, said Michael Beach, co-founder of Targeted Victory, a Republican digital strategy consulting firm. "Next fall, there's going to be a lot of money going into everything. Right now, when resources are more scarce, they're all competing for the first dollar."
