Social media’s impact on politics is obvious. President Obama’s online marketing genius has been covered ad nauseum, both in the social media community and by traditional media. Marketers the world over sat up and took notice. Social media could be used to identify and energize a political base. And businesses began quickly adapting many of those political strategies in their online marketing strategies. What Obama did could be translated into moving business.

That’s not that interesting to me. Oh, trust me. I recognize what a feat of marketing skill that campaign was, and I salivated over the white papers just like every other social media marketing geek out there.

What’s interesting to me is something I recently observed in the medium-sized city I live in (Corpus Christi, TX) when our recent city council election campaign started heating up.

Politics impacted social media.

I’ve been an active and avid participant in social networks like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter for years, and have observed the trends in my smallish city. The interesting thing about smaller cities is that they are like little incubators. You can see a clear definition of when a trend begins; you can watch it sweep through the various demographic channels.

And I watched the Corpus Christi network swell from a smidgeon of college kids and Navy pilots (both of whom I imagine picked it up in other markets and use it to keep in touch with out-of-town friends and family) in December to the current 53,000+ (almost 20 percent of our city population) in the Corpus Christi network.

Politicians got Facebook pages, set up profiles, started groups. As they jumped on board, so did professionals, both young and old. They friended politicians almost immediately, as if seeing the familiar face made it more comfortable for them to be participating in this scary new landscape. Scoffers who had previously thought Facebook the time-waster of choice for college kids ruining early careers with photo albums of drinking binges began to see it for what it was – a tool for events, groups, movements, and keeping up with colleagues, friends and family members.

And though many a local college student was temporarily chagrined by their mother or uncle popping up in their friend requests, each began to see that they could coexist in the same space, making use of the tools for quite different reasons.

Political involvement at the local level helped legitimize Facebook in my community. The winning mayoral candidate, Joe Adame, utilized Facebook far more than either of his opponents. And it seems to have paid off. Mayor-Elect Adame took more than 65 percent of the city vote. There is no doubt that other factors played a major role, but the social media strategy run by that campaign took its notes from another victor’s handbook. I know because I forwarded the white paper to their social media strategist.

As I watched more and more people jump on Facebook, I noticed a lot of the new faces were in an unexpected age group: 45 and older. Around this time, I read that the fastest growing demographic on Facebook was women 55 and older. This coincided with an increase in the same demographic in our market, but it wasn’t restricted to women. So, I was miffed when I read a Caller.com article in which a political candidate stated of Facebook, “I don’t think it’ll reach anyone over the age of 25.” He didn’t win. And neither did mayoral candidate Douglas Schaffer who called social media tools “cold and unfeeling and unemotional.”

And when Joe Adame supporters checked live Twitter updates from @callerdotcom throughout the day to see updates posted 15-20 minutes before the local live television coverage could announce them, it was clear that social media had earned a new persona in Corpus Christi.

It’s a new world out there. Not just in local politics. Social media is changing. It’s not just for the young and techie anymore. So FB message your mom for me and say hi.