CorpComms Magazine

If there is any correlation between social media followers and electoral performance, Barack Obama should cruise to victory in the US presidential elections this year.

The president has 20 times the number of Facebook fans of his nearest rival on social media, Republican candidate Mitt Romney, according to an analysis conducted by social media analytics firm Socialbakers. 

Obama has 24 million Facebook fans to Romney's 1.2 million.

As well as the number of fans, the research considered fan engagement for the eight key candidates from the Republican and Democratic parties in the month of December. 

The research also found user engagement highest on Obama's account. Engagement levels are calculated by evaluating comments and posts, fan engagement and viral reach, which is the amount of 'Likes' and comments a person receives on their wall.

Although Obama has the most fans, Socialbakers found that the number grew by just a small number during December and that most of the fans were amassed during the 2008 election campaign. 

In third position is Texas Congressman Ron Paul with more than 672,000 fans. Paul also saw his social media engagement levels grow by 69 per cent in December. 

Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick Santorum received the highest percentage growth in fans in December, up by 23 per cent to just 40,000 Facebook fans.

But Santorum escapes being bottom of the Republican pile. That place is reserved for the former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who has just more than 30,000 Facebook fans.

Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann, who has since pulled out of the running, was in fourth position in terms of fans with more than 460,000 and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich earned fifth position with less than half the fans of Bachmann.

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