Watch Live: Second House Hearing on IRS Scandal

Watch: Rioters in London Clash With Police Over ‘Cleaver’ Terror Attack

Business

Are These Twitter Charts Good or Bad News for Romney?

Nov. 6, 2012 5:07pm Becket Adams

TheBlaze last week addressed the major role social media plays in our nation’s politics. Whether it’s Twitter or Facebook, political news more often than not breaks first on social media platforms, leaving major media outlets to play catch-up.

So if social media circulation can make or break a story, meaning the people get to decide what’s important, then let’s take look at Twitter to get a sense of where this election is headed.

Lucky for us, the Twitter team has a mountain of fascinating trend data.

“As of 2 pm EST, we have been seeing average election-related Tweet volume of about 13,000 Tweets per minute (TPM) over the last several hours — nearly matching the peak moments of the 2012 State of the Union Address and Republican National Convention,” the Twitter team said in a statement.

“There have been in total about 6.4 million Tweets since the polls opened in Dixville Notch, NH at midnight,” the statement adds.

What kind of Tweets were tracked?

“Nearly 3,000 Tweets per minute reference ‘I voted,’ ‘#ivoted,’ or similar terms, with the highest number of Tweets among swing states coming from Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan,” the statement notes.

“Across the 12 USA Today and Gallup-defined ‘swing states,’ nearly 76% of Tweets containing these terms plus a candidate name reference President Obama,” the report adds.

Mostly mentions of President Obama, huh? Is this trend indicative of the electorates’ mood? That is, can we predict who will be the next president of the United States based on the volume of mentions?

Not necessarily. There are other data points that need to be considered. For instance, what were the specific issues addressed?

“Domestic policy issues dominate issue-based Tweets nationally, with the top five issue-based conversations focused on: The Economy (32%), Foreign Policy (17%), Taxes (14%), Energy & the Environment (9%), and Education (7%),” according to the statement.

“Taxes emerged as the top-tweeted issue in most swing states, except for Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, where Foreign Policy was referenced in the majority of issue-related Tweets,” the report adds.

Team Obama has received the most mention by names, a full 41 percent compared to the Romney campaigns’ 23 percent.

“Nearly 10% of Tweets mention both campaigns, while 23 percent of election-related Tweets mention none of the candidates or their wives,” the report adds. “Obama was also the most talked-about in each of the swing states.”

Although the president is more talked about in swing states, let’s look at this next chart. As you can see, when it come to swing states and the economy, only one candidate clearly and unequivocally dominates the issue. Can you guess who that is?

If you guessed Mitt Romney, you’re a winner.

“[I]n Tweets discussing economic issues only … [there’s] a distinct shift towards Romney in several key states after weeks of the candidates being rated more equally among economy Tweets than on mentions overall,” the statement notes.

Final Thought: First, as the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza pointed yesterday while lecturing Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), what voters really care about are jobs and the economy.

Second, the fact that swing state Twitter users overwhelmingly associate the Republican presidential candidate with the economy more than the president may hold far more implications than simply being mentioned a lot.

Lastly, do we even need to point out that these charts only account for Twitter users? Obviously, not everyone uses the social platform. But for those who do, well, apparently they think “Romney” when they think economy.

Although it’s fun to speculate on the data, we just going to have to wait and see what the entire country thinks.

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

Front page photo courtesy the AP. This story has been updated.

Benghazi, IRS, AP...What's next? Only TheBlaze TV offers the truth from Glenn Beck, Andrew Wilkow, and Real News from TheBlaze. Get instant access and a free trial here.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (28)

gsp9993
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 6:43pm
Tweets and social messaging is an ego trip for the sender. No body reads the messages. It’s true over 80% are never read. These are just 140 character commercials for the politicians.

Can you say MEANINGLESS.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Chrison
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:57pm
“Nearly 3,000 Tweets per minute reference ‘I voted,’ ‘#ivoted,’ or similar terms, with the highest number of Tweets among swing states coming from Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan,” the statement notes.

Across the 12 USA Today and Gallup-defined ‘swing states,’ nearly 76% of Tweets containing these terms plus a candidate name reference President Obama,” the report adds.”

Hmmm… while that sounds scary at first, it’s not very meaningful. Someone could have posted “I #ivoted to dump Obama” and it would be counted in that percentage! Put another way, the words “mention” and “supported” have two completely different meanings!

Don’t panic, folks! It’s not over until the votes are counted (and recounted, and all of the lawsuits have been litigated!). We’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Mattsbay18
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:52pm
It would be interesting to see the demographic breakdown of Twitter users. From what I hear, its users are mostly black. (95% of blacks support Obama)

So no, these charts don’t surprise me.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
DeVain
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:49pm
I think most twitter users are celebrities or 12 years old. I find it irreverent.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
mike_trivisonno
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:49pm
Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal reportedly purchased $300 million stake in Twitter. He will, of course, use his influence to further the Jihad. This is the same Saudi who has large holdings in Citigroup and Newscorp.

Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal is worth around 20 billion. All of it used for Jihad.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Joey Joe Joe
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:48pm
I wonder how twitter is going to make any money now that obama won’t be buying anymore sponsored trends.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Parrid1
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:41pm
Old people don’t tweet…..THEY VOTE

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- circleDwagons
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:47pm
  Tweeting is for twits
  
  Report this comment
bobbyh62
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:37pm
I’m middle aged and the vast majority of my friends, associates, and co-workers are voting for Romney, and almost none of them use twitter. This story is worthless

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- wowjustwow
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:47pm
  Worthless TO YOU
  
  Report this comment
benahan davids
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:33pm
twitter wants to remain relevent in this ever changing world. so they come out with this . Not buying it!! OF COURSE they are pretty much on the fence and trying to stay in the middle as much as possible without being conclusive. But obviously swaying towards Obama.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- wowjustwow
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:49pm
  Now twitter is biased?!?! Twitter is a mode of communication!!
  
  Report this comment
Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:23pm
Young people (college-aged) are more likely to tweet than older people. We don’t need to hear every little thought, plus young democrats are more likely to follow trends like tweeting, so it goes to follow that more young democrats would be tweeting about Owebama.
That does not mean there weren’t more Republicans who did not tweet, but just voted and either went back home, or to work.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- PATTY HENRY
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:38pm
  What ANONY. SAID. I agree! I use Twitter, but text from Iphone more. The YOUTH of AMERICA are
  the twitter group …maybe as much as 80/20% . Also after the first debate when it was “sort of announced on FOX that they would be monitoring Tweeting… Axelrod et al flooded the twitter market.
  
  SO while it shows interest, it cannot show “trend” in fact, I’ll bet there are FEWER Tweets tonight.
  
  “Remember Benghazi ! “
  
  Report this comment
intercepter
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:23pm
twitter shmitter who cares about twitter

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
haystack777
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:21pm
There ALOT of NON-Twitter users. So chill out.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
justangry
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:17pm
The Twitter charts are probably good for Goldman Sachs…

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
smokeysmoke
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:17pm
i dont think everyone who votes romney is twittering their vote… its obamas followers who feel like they need to show their friends that they are “in”

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Gonzo
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:26pm
  Bingo.
  
  Report this comment
- justangry
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:31pm
  Yeah, Romney supporters are still using the telegraph…
  
  Report this comment
- Zoe
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:38pm
  In like Sin!
  
  Report this comment
- PATTY HENRY
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:39pm
  @ JUSTANGRY : NAH, IT ‘S JUST THAT ROMNEY SUPPORTERS can speak in full sentences, dude.
  
  Report this comment
- Windwalker
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:48pm
  Isn’t it those young males (who look enough like Obama to be his son) twittering all over the place about how they are going to riot, rob, burn, destroy and kill if their traitor-in-chief doesn’t get re-elected?
  
  Report this comment
- wowjustwow
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:52pm
  Yeah PattyHenry…you know…all those liberals with their college degrees can’t speak in full sentences? Really??
  
  Report this comment
Fatheroftwo
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:14pm
Ok so what’s the age demographic for Twitter users as apposed to the overall age of people who vote???? Somewhere in there lies the answer!!!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Meggers55
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:13pm
Dear Heavenly Father please save us from Barack Obama.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- QuincySmith
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:31pm
  AMEN (required lower case)!
  
  Report this comment
SREGN
Posted on November 6, 2012 at 5:13pm
Most of them: i VOTED against OBAMA.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply

It appears that you have Javascript Disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser preferences for a better user experience on TheBlaze. You can not comment without Javascript enabled.