As social networking has become more mainstream, the number of users is now large enough to lend itself to in-depth analysis. While social media emerged as a powerful campaign tool in the 2008 presidential election, 2012 is the first election where political pundits and technology gurus are teaming up to provide social media data that can help campaigns and analysts track candidate performance. In the past, social media was seen as a tool to mobilize voters and volunteers. Now, some analysts are treating it more as a new form of polling - and discovering the same volatility and uncertainties.