Tea Party Triumphs on Twitter, Facebook
Republican Senate candidates from Florida to Nevada have gotten the message that social networking matters - in 140 characters or less. Many Republicans of the Tea Party stripe dwarf their Democratic opponents in presence and energy on Twitter and Facebook, according to a new report from HeadCount, a non-partisan voter registration group.
"We now have a transparent view into momentum," says Republican new media guru Patrick Ruffini. "I don't think you can extrapolate that into who will get votes, but it is a predictor of momentum, passion and support."
Online presence can also drive debate: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's tweets and Facebook posts in large part nationalized the conversation over the expansion of an Islamic center near Ground Zero.
Tea Party favorites Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Sharron Angle (R-NV) all have more than 4 times as many followers on the 2 platforms as their Democratic opponents, with between 83K and 143K followers and fans. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), another Tea Party leader, has 150K followers and fans. California Senate contender Carly Fiorina (R), true to her Silicon Valley background, has more than 300K Twitter followers, but that is due to her being the only candidate included in Twitter's "suggested user list" for a period of time. Among Senate candidates and senators, only former presidential candidate John McCain (R-AZ) has more of a Facebook following than the Tea Party candidates, with almost 700K Facebook fans.
Still, the GOP as a whole has yet to catch up to the online Obama juggernaut. While some Tea Party stars could fill e-stadiums, Obama's followers could populate a small e-country. Pres. Obama has almost 14M followers on Facebook and about 5.5M on Twitter. Palin, with the next largest, has 2.4M fans on Facebook and about a quarter million Twitter followers, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) has 1.4M Twitter followers and Facebook fans. While candidates can game the system on both platforms, either by buying ads on Facebook or following others on Twitter in the hopes they'll follow one's account back, the overall picture does show conservatives have the momentum online. November will reveal whether these candidates can do what Obama did, and turn the Twitterverse into foot soldiers and votes.
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