Social Media Engagement By Political Party: Which Side Does It Better?

Which political party is dominating social media in the 2012 presidential election?

Barack Obama has the resume for it, having run a large chunk of his campaign online back in 2008. Four years ago, Obama built up quite a following on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and even YouTube. The strategy paid off, as it secured the youth vote and earned him four years in office. Republicans finally caught on and realized that the internet and social media are here to stay, and that engaging with us online gets votes, but did they learn that lesson too late in the game?

Is Obama still cutting edge on social media engagement as of 2012?

Hosting his very own Reddit AMA yesterday certainly didn’t hurt, and the infographic below (provided by Viralheat) shows that he’s still dominating social engagement with Twitter, Facebook, and newcomer Pinterest. From the chart, you can see that Republicans are catching up, though: They even dominate in the “Share of Voice” category, accounting for 51.26% of mentions on the web to the Democrats 48.74%.

Also, while Obama beats Romney on social media mentions, VP pick Paul Ryan beats Joe Biden (though Romney only recently announced Ryan as his running mate).

The infographic is below. Check it out and let us know what you think!