Social media is the fastest way to pass information and drum up support for any cause. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, and more searches are run in Facebook every week than are run with Google (Source: See compiled list on socialnomics.net). What does that mean?

It means that if you want your cause to be known, you need to spread the word with social media.

It could be argued that Proposition 100 is one of the most hotly debated issues in Arizona right now (at least, it was before the new immigration regulations surfaced). But, it's almost nowhere to be found in social media and online.

At the time of this writing...

• A search of Google News shows only 1686 news-specific results for Proposition 100.
• There are only 33 YouTube videos that use "Proposition 100" in their titles and keywords - there are only 231 videos altogether for proposition 100 (no quotes), and most of them are either over a year old or don't apply to Arizona.
• The Proposition 100 video with the highest number of views (2318) is the 30 second video uploaded by GoldWaterInstitute - and it is advising against the tax increase.
• A real-time Twitter search using the term Proposition 100 is showing fewer than 20 updates per day on this issue.
• Facebook.com leads the way with a noticeable 19,500 real-time search results (using Google) as of the time of this writing. Those results include groups, status updates, advertisements, pictures, videos, tags, and anything else published on Facebook with the keyword Proposition 100.

Here's the thing: 19,500 isn't actually a big number. According to the official Arizona active voter registration count, there are 3,066,757 registered voters for the upcoming special election. 19,500 deeply embedded, protected status updates isn't going to reach 3 million people.

The low video numbers is particularly astounding considering that  24 hours of YouTube videos are being uploaded every minute (Source: Mashable.com).

Where is all the chatter?

Surely it's going on in the schools, among the teachers, in circles of people here and there and on a few blogs. But is that enough?

Photo Credit: liako (flickr). Creative Commons License.

There are 4 days until the vote is taken on Tuesday, May 25, 2010. That is plenty of time to utilize social media (particularly Facebook, YouTube and Twitter) to talk about any cause, Proposition 100 included. If you are strongly for or against it, now is the time to make your voice heard.

**Tips for Searching Sites with Google**

To search for real-time results using Google use the following method. This is particularly useful for Facebook.com because you must be a member to search within Facebook.

In the search box, enter site:Facebook.com Proposition 100. Do not enter use quotes. You can replace Facebook.com with any website domain name and Proposition 100 with any search term.