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Four out of ten Brits claim to have been influenced to some degree by digital media when deciding how to vote in the general election but it was not always the most hyped that had the most sway, according to a new poll by market research agency YouGov.

The impact of new media was particularly marked amongst younger voters who would traditionally steer clear of polling stations in their droves. Three out of ten voters aged 18-24 claimed that channels such as online blogs, email, political sites and Facebook affected their final decision to a fair or great extent.

Over half of the electorate read or saw political information online during the campaign. Though there has been a particular emphasis on the role of social media as a thoroughly modern medium, conventional party websites commanded an impressive audience, earning a visit from one in five UK voters and a third of the younger electorate during the course of the campaign.

Email, one of the digital old guard and a medium used to such impressive effect in the Obama campaign, fared less well in the UK. Only 13 per cent of voters could recall receiving online correspondence from any of the parties.

The political applications of different social media forums also varied widely. The much lauded microblogging site Twitter only disseminated political information amongst five per cent of the electorate, whilst Facebook had far greater clout, having some influence over the ballot papers of 36 per cent of voters and almost a quarter of the particularly tech-savvy 18-24 demographic.

Daljit Bhurji, managing director of Diffusion PR, which commissioned the research, said: 'The 2010 election campaign was dominated by the novelty of the TV debates but it is clear that digital channels, many used for the first time in a General Election, influenced the electoral choices of British voters. This was not the Digital Election some had predicted but it certainly was a Digital Election, with online campaigning making an impact with the majority of the public.'

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