How Twitter Affected the Presidential Election
Barack Obama has been re-elected as President of the United States of America and social media sites, especially Twitter, have had a monumental influence on how voters may have made their decision.
Twitter seemed to be the most commanding social media platform for debate with over 70% of election talk coming from there over the few days preceding the election. Facebook contributed just over 18% with Tumblr and other blogs filling the remaining percentage.
President Barack Obama currently has over 22 million Twitter followers, more than ten times the amount Governor Mitt Romney has at slightly under 2 million.
As Obama was re-elected for four more years in the White House, Twitter erupted in setting a new tweets-per-minute record of 327,000. This is put into context when compared to the previous record of 116,00 which was set when the Spice Girls reunited in the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The Twitter Sentiment score also showed a general positivity towards Obama and some inconsistency towards Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
The sentiment is calculated by a collection of mentions and tweets gathered directly towards each candidate’s twitter account. If the score is higher, the tweets were more positive than any other terms mentioned on Twitter, almost like a percentage score.
At about 8pm Eastern time, Obama’s sentiment rose steadily to 89 while Romney’s dramatically dropped to a low of 18.
Numbers of tweets and followers however does not guarantee success or even calculate how many were even going to vote. But the use of the social media platform was instrumental in spreading campaign messages and expanding a following.
President Obama’s celebratory tweet then went on to pass the 500,000 retweet mark, making it the most retweeted post of all time.
What did you make of the candidates use of Twitter leading up to the election?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or via Twitter.
Daniel Barr
Follow us @SocialMediaF & @DanielAtSMF
www.socialmediafrontiers.com
How Twitter Affected the Presidential Election
Reviewed by Unknown
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Wednesday, November 07, 2012
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Reviewed by Unknown
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Wednesday, November 07, 2012
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Unknown
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