Congressman surging on Facebook, Twitter, other social networks

According to three different studies released today, Ron Paul’s presidential campaign is surging across the social networks and the internet.

Qorvis Communications, one of the nation’s largest independent, integrated communications firms, reports ^[2] that Paul increased his number of followers by 30.05 percent in the month of December, based on figures gleaned from the firm’s monthly Twitter Valuation Analysis study.

The study indicates that Paul is the most viral GOP candidate on Twitter, far and away more discussed than all his rivals, even though Michelle Bachmann’s campaign tweeted over 300 percent more than anyone else in December.

Another study, compiled by analytics service Socialbakers ^[3], indicates that Ron Paul is the candidate with the greatest overall viral reach on Facebook.

The conclusion was reached by taking the number of ’likes’ and comments received, multiplied by the average number of friends per Facebook user.

According to the study, Paul was also the most talked about candidate on Facebook last week with 59,554 separate discussions. In this stat, Paul was second only to President Obama.

Paul also saw the greatest increase in engagement through December, up 69%. His nearest rivals in this respect were Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich, with 58% and 57% increases respectively.

In terms of of total interactions, the study found that Paul led the way in December with 19 percent – double the total interaction figure of Mitt Romney.

Click for larger image:

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A Third study, ^[5] released today, carried out by consultancy outfit Sociagility, finds that Paul tops the wider social media scorecard and reports a “strong, positive correlation between social media performance and voting intention in Iowa”.

Dubbing the result the first ever ‘Social Primary’, the study analyzes the popularity, receptiveness, interaction, network reach and trust of candidates across multiple different social media channels.

Individual results were as follows:

Paul is relying on turning his viral internet status into real votes in order to defeat Mitt Romney in Iowa tomorrow.

As highlighted by a PPP poll ^[6] today, Romney is leading the way in terms of Republicans and older voters. Paul is much stronger amongst younger voters and independents.

In comments to TIME for a piece on Paul’s youth appeal ^[7], Paul’s campaign manager, Jesse Benton, said young people have an “amazing BS meter,” and they often say they see Paul as more sincere, more reliable than the other candidates. “They haven’t had time to become cynical yet,” Benton added.

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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net ^[8], and Prisonplanet.com ^[1]. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/ron-paul-campaign-goes-viral.html/print/