Voters and political candidates increasingly use social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook. This study uses data from an online posttest-only experiment (N = 183) in analyzing how exposure to supportive or challenging user comments on a fictional candidate's Facebook page influenced participants’ perceptions of and willingness to vote for the candidate, as well as whether candidate replies to each type of user comments affected these outcomes. Participants who viewed a page with supportive comments and “likes” reported more favorable perceptions of and greater support for the candidate, relative to participants who viewed a page with challenging comments. Thus, the appearance of interactivity between a candidate and other users on the candidate's Facebook page can shape the responses of those viewing the page. However, exposure to candidate replies to either supportive or challenging comments did not lead to significantly more favorable perceptions or a greater likelihood of voting for the candidate.

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Political candidates, media organizations, and citizens increasingly use the social media site Twitter. Given this trend, as well as the tendency of television news programs to present “meta-coverage” of candidates’ publicity efforts, one might expect television news coverage of election campaigns to include coverage of Twitter. Such coverage, in turn, may shape public opinion. The present study draws on two content analyses to show that television news programs covered Twitter in the context of recent election campaign cycles (2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014) and that much of this coverage focused on candidates’ publicity efforts through Twitter. Building on these results, the study then uses data from an experiment to show that exposure to television news coverage of Hillary Clinton’s publicity efforts through Twitter influenced participants’ opinions about how likable and funny she was but not overall opinions about her. The findings carry potential implications for both candidates and news organizations.