Who was louder online during the political conventions, Democrats or Republicans?
According to Twitter and Facebook conversations, the two parties came in almost even, but the Democrats nevertheless got a slight edge.
Candidates traditionally get what is known as a "convention bounce," or increase in support after their respective party gathering, thanks to the publicity television coverage brings. And with social media, more buzz can be built around the conventions than ever before.
Social media management platform Sprout Social said there were about 4 million conversations on Twitter about the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia and Republican National Convention in Cleveland during the last two weeks. Around 52 percent of the conversations were about the Democrats. #DemsInPhilly was the most commonly used hashtag, with an average of 55,051 tweets per day using the term.
Republicans on the other hand were most likely to use #RNCinCLE. They averaged a whopping 59,202 tweets daily with that hashtag. (Not all conversations related to the two events used one of those two hashtags.)
Facebook said from the beginning of the Democratic National Convention until now, 27 million users engaged in conversations around Democratic candidates and the convention. Their posts created 182 million likes, posts, comments and shares, meaning they had a slightly higher engagement rate than their Republican counterparts.
That's not to say Republicans didn't fare well on Facebook. Around 27.9 million people talked about the Republican National candidates between the time of the GOP Convention until today. Their posts elicited 167.5 million likes, posts, comments and shares.