The paper presents the results of a quantitative research undertaken between February 2012 and February 2013 on the factors related to the use of Twitter by 457 Brazilian federal deputies. We analyze the volume of messages posted and the number of followers of each deputy in order to examine how those variables relate to individual and political characteristics. Results show, among other things, that the deputy who most uses the microblog has the following profile: a relatively young user, highly voted, an early adopter of digital media and a member of a leftist party.
Internet; social media; Twitter; Congress; politics; public image
