{"id":88228,"date":"2016-07-18T10:51:34","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T15:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2016\/07\/18\/candidates-differ-in-their-use-of-social-media-to-connect-with-the-public\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:11:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:11:50","slug":"candidates-differ-in-their-use-of-social-media-to-connect-with-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2016\/07\/18\/candidates-differ-in-their-use-of-social-media-to-connect-with-the-public\/","title":{"rendered":"2. Candidates differ in their use of social media to connect with the public"},"content":{"rendered":"
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[5.numoffset=”5″ Bernie Sanders was not included in this survey. See Topline<\/a> and Methodology<\/a> for more information.]<\/p>\n\n\n

A new Pew Research Center analysis of three weeks of the candidates\u2019 Facebook and Twitter accounts finds both similarities and differences in the ways Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders use these still relatively new campaign tools. The study of 714 tweets and 389 Facebook posts made by the candidates between May 11 and May 31, 2016, finds that the three candidates post at similar rates but differ in the focus of these posts and in the attention they receive from the public. On Facebook, Clinton and Sanders mostly use links to highlight official campaign communications while Trump links frequently to the news media. On Twitter, Trump stands out for retweeting ordinary people more often than Clinton or Sanders (though retweets are rare). Videos, meanwhile, appeared in about a quarter of Clinton\u2019s social media posts, compared with about one-in-ten of Trump\u2019s; Sanders used video far more on Facebook than on Twitter. Finally, on both platforms, when the candidates mention their opponents, Clinton and Trump focus on each other while Sanders goes largely unmentioned.<\/p>\n\n

Overall, people who follow these candidates on social media see the daily cycle of the campaign through a narrow window. Candidates naturally select messages beneficial to their campaigns to share with followers. While Clinton mostly passes on messages crafted by the campaign itself, Trump reaches out to news media and the public. Sanders employs a mix of campaign communications and news media in his posts.<\/p>\n\n

These are some of the findings from an analysis of the candidates\u2019 social media activity during a period in the campaign when Trump had become the presumptive Republican nominee and Clinton was still trying to secure the Democratic nomination as Sanders fought on. Content was collected from the Twitter and Facebook API and hand-coded by a team of researchers. (For more information, see our methodology \u2013 LINK]).<\/p>\n\n

Clinton and Sanders post as frequently as Trump \u2013 but his tweets and Facebook posts get far more attention<\/h3>\n\n
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Over the three weeks studied, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders posted on Facebook and Twitter at roughly similar rates, averaging five to seven posts per day on their Facebook pages and 11-12 posts per day on their Twitter accounts.<\/p>\n\n

While the candidates\u2019 level of posting was about the same, public response was far from equal.[6. Audience interaction data for all posts were captured at least two days after the post time and no more than one week after the post time.]\u00a0In every measurable category of user attention \u2013 Facebook shares, comments, and reactions, as well as Twitter retweets \u2013 the public responded to Donald Trump\u2019s social media updates more frequently on average than to either of the other candidates\u2019 posts. Trump\u2019s posts on Twitter, for example, were retweeted almost 6,000 times on average compared with just over 1,500 for Clinton and almost 2,500 for Sanders.[7. Retweet averages do not include posts that the candidate directly retweeted from another individual or organization.]\u00a0This may be due in part to Trump\u2019s higher number of followers. Near the time of publication, he had almost 10 million followers on Twitter compared with Clinton\u2019s 7 million and Sanders\u2019 3 million, while on Facebook, 9 million followed Trump\u2019s official page, about double the number who followed either Clinton\u2019s or Sanders\u2019 pages.<\/p>\n\n

Both Trump and Sanders had a few posts that received outsized responses. Sanders\u2019 declaration on Twitter that he would debate Trump<\/a>, for example, had received roughly 28,000 retweets at the time of the study, while a Facebook post from Sanders celebrating Native Americans<\/a> received over 52,000 shares. And Trump\u2019s tweet attacking Clinton on gun control<\/a> had received about 16,000 retweets, while his Facebook post supporting police<\/a> was shared over 72,000 times. Comparatively, Clinton had no breakout posts or tweets in this period, instead collecting a fairly steady number of interactions on her posts and tweets. Her most retweeted tweet, about drought conditions in California<\/a>, had received about 5,600 retweets at the time of analysis, while her most highly shared Facebook post was a video attacking Donald Trump<\/a> that was shared 15,000 times. Even accounting for the posts that drew overwhelming attention, Trump still received the most public response. Looking at the median \u2013 or middle point \u2013 rather than the average number of interactions per posts puts less weight on the extremes, and under this metric, Trump maintains his top position.<\/p>\n\n

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Game on. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 26, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n