How influential are the candidates on social media?

While Gingrich has the most followers, Ron Paul has the most sustained influence online

Since social media has only been gaining importance and influence in many industries, 2012 is set to be the year that political strategy and social media become inseparable. So, just hours before the Iowa caucuses, I thought we could take a quick look at how the Republican candidates are doing on the social networks.

While the Iowa caucuses will not directly factor in the strength of each candidates online following, it might reflect how many people are interested in what each candidate has to say.

These numbers are reflective of early Tuesday morning before publishing and are listed alphabetically. 

Michele Bachmann

Twitter followers: 36,342 (plus127,183 for her Congress account)

Facebook page "likes": 460,262 (plus 271,951 for her Congress account)

YouTube channel views: 1,324,846

YouTube subscribers: 1,637

Klout score: 68

First Tweet of the New Year: "Happy New Year! In 2012, we're resolving to make Barack Obama a one-term President. What's your resolution?" 

Newt Gingrich

Twitter followers: 1,386,060

Facebook page "likes": 224,467

YouTube channel views: 6,310,555

YouTube subscribers: 7,529

Klout score: 78

First tweet of the New Year: "Huge crowds in Iowa at every stop for our Jobs and Growth Bus Tour. Momentum is building. Check out Day 5 pics"

Important to factor in: Gingrich has been criticized that many of his followers are cyberbots and false accounts so the number of his followers on Twitter could be greatly inflated.

Jon Huntsman

Twitter followers: 66,993

Facebook page "likes": 30,799

YouTube channel views: 635,796

YouTube subscribers: 771

Klout score: 70

First tweet of the New Year: "As president, I'll modernize U.S. education. First and foremost, restore local control. Read about my plan: https://jon2012.us/s7nlR2#gop2012"

Ron Paul

Twitter followers: 151,239 (plus 96,610 for his Congress account)

Facebook page "likes": 675,991

YouTube channel views: 35,591,936 (He has had a channel the longest of his competitors -- since Mar. 2007)

YouTube subscribers: 118,333

Klout score: 75

First tweet in the New Year: "Release: Ron Paul campaign airs final New Hampshire TV ad 'Believe' [Video] https://ow.ly/8fD0K #GOP #GOP2012 #tcot #RonPaul"

Important to note: While most of the other canidates have been in the political waters for many years, Ron Paul has capitalized his campaigns for years from the Independant voters online and has amassed a very devoted online community.

Rick Perry

Twitter followers: 112,046 (plus 24,232 for his campaign account)

Facebook page "likes": 180,226

YouTube channel views: 13,075,690

YouTube subscribers: 3,294

Klout score: 74

First tweet of the New Year: "A great run @ Raccoon River Park in West Des Moines.https://yfrog.com/nuretcej"

Important to note: Rick Perry has won the most dislikes made in 2012 for his campaign video -- 730,000 "dislikes," making it one of the most disliked videos on YouTube. (Rebecca Black's "Friday" had only 367,000.) 

Mitt Romney

Twitter followers: 222,889

Facebook page "likes": 1,267,232

YouTube channel views: No official channel

Klout score: 78

First Tweet of the New Year: "I believe in restoring the principles that made America great, and I'll do that with your help Tuesday night."

Important to note: Under topics of influence on the social networking metrics site Klout, Mitt Romney has been voted influential for "conservative politics," "Barack Obama," and the "Republican party" which seem appropriate -- but I image the campaign can't be happy that the presidential candidate has also been labelled influential on "homophobia," "flip-flop (fashion)," and "celebrities."

Rick Santorum

Twitter followers: 56,898

Facebook page "likes": 42,151

YouTube channel views: 43,326

YouTube subscribers: 763

Klout score: 70

First tweet of the New Year: "I have events today in Sioux City, Orange City & Rock Rapids. Join me! Details here."

Important to note: A slam campaign led by TV, radio and human rights personality Dan Savage has greatly hurt Santorum and the results to get when you Google his name since the presidential candidate has been very negative about the rights of the LGBT community -- lets just say the results are NSFW.

 

(Image Source: Usatoday.com)