Obama’s Twitter Following Is More Influential Than Romney’s [STUDY]http://bit.ly/UJBiUT
9:38 PM - 10 Oct 12 · Details
While Mitt Romney’s Twitter following is growing daily and recently crossed the one million mark, Barack Obama has a more influential following, according to a new report.
Obama — who has 20.3 million Twitter followers, has a social pull of more than 8,000 times that of the average Twitter user, per a study conducted by social media analytics firm PeekYou. On the other hand, Romney, with 1.2 million followers, has a pull of about 800 times the average user.
PeekYou defines “social pull” as a measure of influence — a higher social pull suggests a user has more influences in their following, aiding the first users’ ability to broadcast a message far and wide.
What else do we know about Obama and Romney’s Twitter followers? By matching the candidates’ followers to over 60 public online and offline data sources, PeekYou gleaned other interesting statistics about them.
A higher share of Obama’s followers are female — 49% of Obama’s followers compared to 35% of Romney’s. Obama’s followers also skew much younger than Romney’s, with 24% of the president’s followers under age 25 to 16% of Romney’s.
Interestingly, only 55% of Obama’s followers self-identify as living in the United States, compared to 89% of Romney’s followers. That’s perhaps an effect of being a sitting president as opposed to a candidate and former governor.
Where are those American followers located? Battleground states — Obama’s got a higher percentage of Floridian followers than the average Twitter user, while more than typical numbers of Ohioans follow Romney.
How should Obama and Romney be using Twitter? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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Read a few of the top posts from the series:
- Election 2040: The First President for Digital Natives
- Voter Data: What the Candidates Know About You
- How to Market the Next President
- Gaffesplosion: The Unrelenting Hype of Modern Politics
- How Social Media Can Safeguard Your Vote
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