The morning before election day, by one , @scottbrownma had 10,214 Twitter follower compared to 3,520 for @marthacoakley; Brown had 76,700 Facebook fans compared to Coakley's 14,487, a figure which almost sums up what happened the next day: Coakley was in effect left alone, while voters flocked to Brown.

Social networks are another way for you to interact with other people, he says. "There's more to Twitter than tweeting. Most of the business of Twitter happens behind the scenes, and on phone calls like this one."

"An engaged following is more likely to retweet, to comment on blogs, to respond to unfounded criticism," LaRosa says. "They become connected to you and they feel it is in their interest to act. Some bloggers spend hours online posting links and blogging. It became a movement and it just fed on itself. It's very hard to create that."

in Network World's Software section.