Picking up on last week’s post… Although social networks have been around for a while with sites like Bolt and Friendster, things really exploded when MySpace and Facebook got into the picture. With a combined membership of over 200 million, companies, politicians and other interest groups naturally scrambled to make their presence felt.

A quick look at the top politicians on Facebook (in terms of the number of supporters) reveals interesting insights. Leading the pack as of last week when I gathered up the numbers is Barack Obama with 1,637,316 supporters, while John McCain is a far second with 258,000 supporters. Others in the Top 10 are Hillary Clinton, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and Michelle Obama, who has 94,707 supporters even though she’s technically not running for any elected position.

Obviously, most of them are using social networks to campaign (or at least that’s the main focus for now). However, there are exceptions, like China’s PM, who doesn’t need to get elected by the people, but knows he still needs to bolster his popularity in order to be effective in his job. Facebook is just another way to get closer to people, something that’s quite a challenge when your constituents are 1.3-billion strong.

Another reason politicians put up their own profile is to prevent bogus ones from appearing and protect their identity. Here they can share personal tidbits to humanize themselves even more, like the fact that Barack likes to play basketball, or that his wife Michelle loves to solve sudoku puzzles, or that “Some Like It Hot” is one of John McCain’s favorite movies. It’s also much easier, faster, and cheaper to disseminate information among supporters this way than traditional media, especially for countries with high populations of workers abroad, as the Internet knows no borders. And, if they plug-in their blog’s RSS on Facebook, it’s much more likely for content to go viral.

Having their presence in social networks promotes a feeling of community, making people feel a little bit closer to them. A regular person can just send uncensored messages directly, which is nearly impossible in “the real world”, where one has to contend with bodyguards and bureaucracy. Social networks also empower people thru discussion groups, where they can talk about the burning issues of the day, and possibly initiate petitions or other calls to action. In the end, it’s all about breaking down barriers, and getting the people at the top to listen to those below.

What do you think about politicians on Facebook? Is there anything you’d like them to do using the social networks as a platform?