You have one new friend request from Gordon Brown

Political parties are trying to get their message across on every platform available to them. Politicians “tweet” their promises, while votes are gauged by the number of Facebook 'fans' and 'likes'.

The use of Twitter, Facebook and other social media is a first for UK elections and parties hope it will make their policies heard by the group believed to suffer most from voter apathy: youngsters with the right to vote, who spend much of their time in front of a screen.

Old style spin-doctors are left behind as new 'twitter-tsars' are hired to woo the online demographic. With 23 million Brits on Facebook, no party can afford to let such a large avenue slide. The question is: will it actually make a difference?

It did for Barack Obama in 2008, when his team made groundbreaking use of Facebook and the internet in his presidential campaign. After the win, Mr Obama thanked his online fans for their support before he even had his first televised appearance, showing the speed at which online communication happens. Mybarackobama.com turned out to be such a hit that the Tories even decided to make their own version: myconservatives.com.

But things are different here than in America and there is less euphoric enthusiasm when it comes to supporting a candidate. The parties’ online efforts might be wasted on British voters who have become more cynical and want real change.

The speed of it is something British politicians might be unused to as well; there is no hiding behind television cameras and carefully planning questions for this type of debate. Online campaigning provides instant response to party policies but also demands quick answers and clever tactics to keep the interest of people who might already have five other windows open.

This speed means the internet is as much a friend as a foe. A debate at City University points out that this type of campaigning will be the death of the political slogan. And how can it not be, when only minutes after a party slogan is released, online-pranksters turn it into a joke and spread it to all corners of the world wide web? Social-networking sites have made heckling possible as never before.

The usefulness of social media in this election is undeniable when it comes to spreading the word. But even though all parties need to find new voters and battle the pervading cynicism after the expenses scandal, they also need to remember that voters are not necessarily going to be swayed by a 'wall post'. The numbers speak for themselves – 4000 people follow Gordon Brown on Facebook, while 4 million watched his ITV interview with Piers Morgan.

As the nature of the political propaganda machine changes, the aim of the game certainly hasn’t. Regardless of 'fans' and 'followers', 'tweets' or 'posts', it all comes down to how many votes are cast at the polling station on 6 May 2010.