Post on 13-Feb-2017
transcript
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Social Media Metrics and PoliticsBy Hayley Solonynka
+Introduction
Social media fastest growing form of media Changes the way we interact
Political campaigns and officers Accountable and accessible Can customize image based on analytics
What does this mean? Political messages and campaigns Political engagement through social media Audience opinions on political current events
+Social Media and Political Campaigns Recent Presidential elections increased Free video posting for campaign ads Algorithms used to predict election outcome
Analyze key words Probability-based prediction on how voters would vote
Immediate feedback Algorithms aren’t perfect
New and little data to pull from Important to question it, before accepting it
+Social Media and Obama Campaign Barack Obama
Twitter followers 2008: 118,000 Twitter followers 2012:
20+ million
+2016 Election
Could be a major component of an effective political campaign Message out to millions, mobilize activists, target swing
voters
+Hillary Clinton
Announced via YouTube and Twitter Generated much more Facebook conversation than
either Paul or Cruz Doesn't capture whether those interactions were
positive or negative
Candidate Twitter FacebookHillary Clinton 3.41 million 752,000
Rand Paul 604,000 1.9 millionTed Cruz 400,000 1.2 million
+Social Media and Political Engagement More than promotion, Engagement How do you know if your strategies are working?
Monitor and track engagement Twitter will track: important followers, analytics for
tweets, overall reach, top tweets Facebook monitors too
several likes and shares appear at the top of your newsfeed
Relevant vs. popular
+Social Media and Political Current Events Shape how we react to and perceive certain political
events Bias when searching specifically, closed off Providing vs. Participating
Quick and easy way to make voice heard Hashtags connect users with similar opinions
+Social Media and Political Current Events Created an atmosphere where nothing can be hidden,
everything is displayed and public Anthony Weiner (Congressman)
caught sending explicit photos to women through Twitter
Chris Christie closure of three lanes on George Washington Bridge in New
Jersey Talking about the 91-year-old woman who died during the
closure Displaying assistant’s email sent out incriminating their
involvement
+Research Questions
Will social media still be useful in the 2016 elections? How big of a role will it play in the candidate’s campaigns? How can we use the data we have now to predict future campaign changes?
How are early candidates exerting social media influence on Twitter?
Is current political engagement reflective of a polarized crowd, as defined by Pew Internet research?
To what extent is the Election 2016 hashtag already being used on Twitter in April of 2015?
+NodeXL
+Limitations
Still knew, little research to gather information from Articles tend to be biased toward a specific party,
which can limit the research results Hard to track specifically how politicians are making
the most of their campaign usage
+Conclusion
Predicting much more social media use during the 2016 elections, could be more information learned from that data
More tools than last election Full potential
Engaging with users Creating online discussions to form government policies and
express public opinion
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