Communication between Members of Congress and their constituents has changed with the development of new online social networking services. Many Members now use e-mail, official websites, blogs, YouTube channels, Twitter, and Facebook pages to communicate with their constituents—technologies that were either non-existent or not widely available 20 years ago. These technologies have arguably served to enhance the ability of Members of Congress to fulfill their representational duties by providing greater opportunities for communication between the Member and individual constituents, supporting the fundamental democratic role of sharing information about public policy and government operations. Despite these advantages, electronic communications have raised some concerns. Existing law and chamber regulations on the use of communication media such as the franking privilege have proven difficult to adapt to the new electronic technologies. This report examines Member use of two electronic communication mediums: Twitter and Facebook. After providing an overview and background of each medium, the report analyzes patterns of Member use of Twitter and Facebook during a two-month period in 2011. This report is inherently a snapshot of a dynamic process. As with any new technology, the number of Members using Twitter and Facebook and the patterns of use may change rapidly. Thus, the conclusions drawn from these data cannot be easily generalized nor can these results be used to predict future behavior. Members of Congress have more choices and options available to communicate with constituents than they did 20 years ago. In addition to traditional modes of communication such as townhall meetings, telephone calls, and postal mail, Members can now reach their constituents via e-mail, websites, tele-townhalls, online videos, social networking sites, and other electronic-based communication applications. The rise of such electronic communication has altered the traditional patterns of communication between Members and constituents. Although virtually all Members continue to use traditional modes of constituent communication, use of new communications technology is increasing. For example, prior to 1995, there were virtually no e-mail exchanges between Members and constituents. In 2011, over 243 million e-mails were received by the House of Representatives. The Senate received 83 million emails in 2011. Member official websites, blogs, YouTube channels, and Facebook pages—all non-existent 20 years ago—also receive significant traffic. Conversely, the amount of postal mail sent to Congress has dropped by more than 50% during the same time period. In addition, electronic technology has reduced the marginal cost of constituent communications; unlike postal letters, Members can reach large numbers of constituents for a fixed cost. Created in 2006 by developer Jack Dorsey as a tool to keep in touch with friends, Twitter is a web-based social networking service that allows users to send and read short messages. Also considered a micro-blogging site, Twitter users send "Tweets" of up to 140 characters. These Tweets are displayed on an author's Twitter home page and on the pages of people subscribed to his or her RSS feed. Twitter enables individual users to post thoughts on any number of topics or activities. While Twitter use varies, it has been used by individuals and organizations to state opinions, promote events, and announce the release of products and services. Several legislative branch entities actively use Twitter to communicate with interested parties. These include the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Library of Congress (LOC), and the Government Printing Office (GPO). In addition, Restaurant Associates, the House's food service vendor, uses Twitter to announce daily specials and events. Posting under the user name "@ushrcafes," a typical Tweet might look like this: Celebrate National Cupcake Day at Creamery and Capitol Market today! Because of the 140 character limit on Tweets, Twitter messages are necessarily short. The brevity of the messages highlights the ease in which Tweets can be quickly sent from mobile devices to followers around the world. The rapid transmission of information allows individuals and groups to communicate instantly without limitation of physical distance. Twitter allows individual users to "follow" other Twitter subscribers and read their Tweets from the Twitter homepage. Individuals may choose to follow another Twitter account if they are interested in the information provided, are friends with the Twitter account holder, or if they are a "fan" of an activity or place. Following another user's Twitter account allows for almost instant access to his or her Tweets. This can be useful if a follower is looking for a featured item or to better understand the activities of the person or group he or she is following. Individuals who "follow" an individual Twitter user can have instant access to Tweets through devices such as a Blackberry® , iPhone, or other similar mobile, Internet-ready devices. Launched in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and several of his classmates at Harvard College, Facebook is the world's largest social networking service and website. Facebook provides "profiles" and "pages" for users, both of which are personalized websites within Facebook on which users can post pictures, videos, and messages, upon which other users may post comments. Users can limit the visibility of their profile posts to other users who they have personally approved ("friends"). A Facebook user can become a fan of a page, however, simply by clicking "like" on the Facebook page of interest; owner approval is not required. Once a Facebook user becomes a fan of a page, the activity of the "liked" page appears on the user's "newsfeed." A newsfeed contains activities by a user's friends, along with content generated by the pages of which the user is a fan. Thus, each Facebook user's newsfeed is personalized. Newsfeed content can include links to news stories, personal updates, videos, comments, and photographs. The profiles of individual Facebook users also contain a "timeline," which chronologically captures all of the user's posts. Other users may also post to someone's timeline, if the two users are "friends," and if the user permits such a post. This report analyzes the following questions related to Member use of Twitter and Facebook: What proportion of Members use Twitter and Facebook? How often do Members use Twitter and Facebook? What are Members Tweeting and posting about? For two consecutive months—August 25 to October 24, 2011—the Tweets and Facebook posts of Representatives and Senators who were registered to use Twitter and Facebook were collected. To collect these data, CRS partnered with graduate students at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. Custom programming scripts were developed that queried both Facebook and Twitter's Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and pulled account-specific information from Members' official public accounts. A second dataset capturing Member adoption of Twitter and Facebook was collected in January 2012, reflecting the most recent Member additions to social media available in the data collection phase of the research project. These adoption data were used to analyze Member use of Twitter and Facebook. The unit of analysis is the individual Tweet or Facebook post. A total of 47,004 cases are included in the dataset—30,765 Tweets and 16,239 Facebook posts. Data collection was automated and characteristics, including the date, time, and content were captured. After an initial examination of the content and a review of established coding schemes used to catalog similar data, researchers devised a comprehensive set of coding categories. The research team then examined each Tweet or post and recorded the appropriate coding results. Coding was subjected to an internal reliability test to validate inter-coder consistency. Tweets or Facebook posts could be coded into more than one category. Several caveats accompany the results presented. First, the analysis treats all Member Tweets and Facebook posts as structurally identical, because each individual Tweet or post reveals no information about who physically typed the message. In some cases, Members might personally Tweet or post, whereas other Members may delegate these responsibilities to staff. CRS draws no distinction between the two. Second, the analysis covers only two months of Member activity. Therefore, it is inherently a snapshot in time of a dynamic process. As with any new technology, the number of Members using Twitter and the patterns of use may change rapidly in short periods of time. Thus, the conclusions drawn from these data cannot be easily generalized. Finally, these results cannot be used to predict future behavior. As of January 24, 2012, a total of 426 of 541 Members of Congress (78.7%) had an official congressional account registered with Twitter, and 472 Members (87.2%) had an official congressional account registered on Facebook. Figure 1 shows the proportion of Members in the House and Senate who had an official account with Twitter, Facebook, both, or neither, as of January 24, 2012, respectively. These numbers reflect an increase in adoption over the previous two years. As of September 2009, only 205 Members—39 Senators and 166 Representatives (a total of 38%)—had been registered with Twitter. Figure 2 shows the percentage of Members who have adopted Twitter and Facebook, by chamber and party affiliation, as of January 2012. As in 2009, a variation in adoption of social media continued to exist among parties, especially in the House of Representatives. The gap between parties remains similar for Twitter. Whereas in 2009, 60% of Twitter-registered Members were Republican and 40% were Democrats, in 2012, 56% of Twitter-registered Members were Republican and 44% were Democrats. Earlier studies of social media adoption showed that House Republicans were the most likely adopters of Twitter. That finding continues to be true for both Twitter and Facebook. For the 112 th Congress (2011-2012), House Republicans had the highest adoption rate for both platforms—87.3% for Twitter and 94.7% for Facebook. Senate Republicans also had higher adoption rates than their Democratic counterparts with 83% of Senate Republicans adopting Twitter and 80.9% adopting Facebook. In contrast, House Democrats had an 80% adoption rate for Twitter and a 90% adoption rate for Facebook and Senate Democrats had a 78% adoption rate for Twitter and a 77% adoption rate for Facebook.