With 1 million followers on Twitter, Serra challenges rivals online.

247 - At 70 years old, José Serra is the oldest candidate for mayor of São Paulo, but also the most connected and active on social media. On Tuesday afternoon, he reached a symbolic milestone on Twitter, surpassing 1 million followers. Serra expressed his gratitude, said he will continue interacting with his audience, and continued commenting on topics from his daily life, such as the last movie he watched: "The Descendants," starring George Clooney.

Performance on Twitter can be a powerful weapon in an election like the one in 2012, which will increasingly feature e-readers, that is, voters connected to the internet. And his opponents have not yet awakened to the power of social networks. Fernando Haddad, of the PT, who presents himself as "the new," has only 4,3 followers on Twitter and his profile is practically inactive – the last post was on March 27th. In second place in the polls, Celso Russomano, of the PRB, has been trying to make up for lost time and already has a profile with 14,5 followers.

Ahead of them both are Soninha Francine, from the PPS party, with 71,6 followers, and Gabriel Chalita, from the PMDB party, with 146,6. On his profile, the PMDB member frequently posts inspirational quotes, while Soninha engages and interacts directly with her younger audience.

In Latin America, Twitter is increasingly becoming a political tool and a means of direct communication between politicians and voters. Of the continent's politicians, the Venezuelan has the most accessed profile, followed by more than 3 million people, while Cristina Kirchner has 1,2 million followers. President Dilma Rousseff, unlike her counterparts in Venezuela and Argentina, stopped updating her profile after taking office.