How Some Social Media Data Pointed to a Donald Trump Win. While many polls and prediction models forecasted Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as the winner of the 2016 presidential race, some social media analytics firms that had trained their eye on the election were expecting the result voters saw Wednesday, with Donald Trump as the victor. Consistently the most-Googled candidate and the most-mentioned on Twitter and Facebook, Mr. Trump used social media differently than any presidential candidate has before, sending or dictating many of his own tweets and often using the platforms to make news. His rival tended to play it more safe, often using social media to encourage supporters to share images and quotes. As the time to vote approached, 4C Insights observed that positive views of both candidates dropped from levels seen in the primary, but engagements about the candidates — categorized as a mention of the candidate online, or a comment, retweet or share of a post about the candidate — increased. Social media analytics firm Socialbakers also predicted a strong performance by Mr. Trump. Social media analytics firm Spredfast released a view of the Electoral College map based on social sentiment — showing which states were seeing the most positive conversation around each candidate — but didn’t say that was how the race would turn out. The actual result of the race went in favor of Mr. Trump, who won 279 electoral votes to Mrs. Clinton’s 228. He believes that people weren’t comfortable admitting online to friends that they were supporting Mr. Trump until he won the election. “Social data has power in scale, but at times, it requires people to be comfortable self-declaring their preferences,” Mr. Kerns said.
following his……
While many polls and prediction models forecasted Democratic
nominee Hillary Clinton as the winner of the 2016 presidential
race, some social media analytics firms that had trained their eye
on the election were expecting the result voters saw Wednesday,
with Donald Trump as the victor.
“Trump came in big on social and he rode it all the way through
to the White House,” said Aaron Goldman, chief marketing officer of
marketing analytics and data firm 4C Insights, which tracks social
media engagement and TV mentions of private firms. The Chicago firm
turned its prediction models to the presidential race for the first
time this year after correctly forecasting Britain’s rejection of
the European Union, known as “Brexit.”
Its analysis found that overall, Mr. Trump had more support on
Twitter and Facebook than his rival. From Oct. 1 through Nov. 7,
views of Mr. Trump were 58% positive while views of Mrs. Clinton
were 48% positive.
Consistently the most-Googled candidate and the most-mentioned
on Twitter and Facebook, Mr. Trump used social media differently
than any presidential candidate has before, sending or dictating
many of his own tweets and often using the platforms to make news.
It remains to be seen just how important these factors are in
winning a campaign, as conversation online can be positive or
negative.
His rival tended to play it more safe, often using social media
to encourage supporters to share images and quotes. Still, Mrs.
Clinton ended up with the most-shared tweet…
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