With the 2016 presidential campaign well underway, it’s worth examining how each of the possible 2016 candidates stack up against each other on Twitter.
There are more than 284 million monthly active users on Twitter and 500 million tweets sent per day, making it an integral platform for engaging conversation with potential voters.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had a belated arrival to the platform in June 2013, amassed 100,000 followers almost instantly.
While her tweets more recently have been to promote book events and speaking engagements, she did use the platform to condemn republicans and weigh in on financial reform:
Others are using the platform to exchange snarky jabs and troll followers on the potential for a 2016 run:
But overall, where do they all stand?
As probably expected, Clinton has the most followers, followed by former 2012 Presidential candidate and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. What is surprising however is how Jeb Bush compares. He has the lowest followers of just about everyone in the pack.
As for Twitter conversation and mentions, who’s winning in conversation and engagement? CNN requested data from Twitter to measure engagement rates, using numbers from the start of Clinton’s book tour in June 2014.
Clinton again is the clear Twitter front-runner with a 74% increase in followers since June. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, while significantly fewer followers than Clinton and Romney, has seen a 50% increase in combined followers for both twitter handles @Elizabethforma and @Senwarren. Bush, while comparatively stands with the least amount of followers, has seen a significant increase in followers since June 2014, 31%. Romney, who has the second highest following next to Clinton has seen only a 4% increase in followers despite recent talk of a third presidential run.
Facebook on the other hand is a different kind of animal. Clinton doesn’t yet have an official Facebook page and Romney is leading both presence and engagement on the platform.
How about Instagram? I don’t think we’re there yet.
