New Hampshire Primaries: Social Media Stats Track Romney's Race to the Polls

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Jan 11, 2012, 09:00 ET

NEW YORK and LONDON, January 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Social media monitoring company, Brandwatch has this morning released Twitter data charting Romney's New Hampshire win against social media buzz for all candidates in the Republican race.

The data comprises three charts from Brandwatch (click here to view PDFs).

Fig1. Romney gains ground before NH vote

The first chart shows the daily proportion of Twitter conversation garnered by each of the Republican presidential candidates in 2012.

Despite being less visible than rival Rick Santorum on Friday January 6 due to Santorum 's surprise performance in Iowa, Mitt Romney was the most tweeted candidate throughout the period, his exposure growing proportionately, leading up to the NH vote.

Fig2. Romney takes and holds the lead

The second chart shows the hourly share of Twitter conversation in the four days leading-up to, and including, the New Hampshire poll.

Despite Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum each generating similar shares of Twitter discussion on Saturday, Romney dominated the tweet landscape thereafter; reflecting the final vote.

The share of tweets noting Rick Santorum fell-away significantly in the build-up to the New Hampshire primary, mirroring media expectations.

Fig3. Paul wins the battle for second

With Mitt Romney accounting for the largest share of Twitter updates, as well as, eventually, the New Hampshire electorate, we look at the race for second place and a chance to gain momentum (and funding) in the run-up to South Carolina.

The share of Twitter updates an hour before the polls closed in NH was remarkably similar to the result of the actual vote. The candidates were not only represented in the same order but accounted for similar shares of tweets to that of the Primary poll (Paul 21% of tweets [23% of the vote*], Huntsman 15% [17%], Gingrich 11% [9%], Santorum (10%) [9%].

* Results from Associated Press

Interestingly, also reflected in the Twitter stats is candidates' TV ad spend - notably, Perry and Santo made next to no investment, skipping NH to gain a head start in South Carolina.

About Brandwatch

Brandwatch is one of the world's leading social media monitoring and analysis tools, with offices in the UK, US, Germany and Brazil. Global brands and agencies use our tool to cut through the noise on the social web and find the conversation that matters, empowering decisions that improve their business.

SOURCE Brandwatch