Political marketers at this stage of a presidential election are all about conversions: Get people to donate via email and then advocate their candidate to friends. Social media is important (Hillary Clinton announced on YouTube), but to what degree? The candidacy of Donald Trump might serve as an indicator.
Last night, Trump tweet-bombed the first Democratic Presidential Debate on CNN, and drew more attention than Hillary. Socialist Bernie Sanders proved social media wizard, as well, with more than 400,000 mentions on Twitter, but the Democratic front-runner was overshadowed by the GOP’s top guy, according to Amobee Brand Intelligence. Trump, who live-tweeted during the entire debate, earned 168,912 mentions to Hillary’s 166,140.
But even Trump–widely credited for the highest TV debate ratings in history–couldn’t lift the Democratic gabfest to higher ground with his tweet-spree. The last GOP debate elicited 3,976,335 tweets, Amobee reported, more than twice last night’s total for the Dems: 1,866,330.
