What Twitter Says for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney

RMN Digital | August 2, 2012 | Americas, E-Governance, Masses, Regions, Social, Social Media | No Comments

News and information media company USA TODAY has launched the USA TODAY/Twitter Election Meter.

It tracks the Twitter Political Index, a daily measure of sentiment expressed by Twitter users about President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

As the electioneering is gaining momentum in the U.S., tech companies are offering a slew of solutions to make political processes efficient for the parties and candidates. (Read: How Technology is Entering the American Political Arena)

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The Election Meter is a graphic representation of the Twitter Political Index, a daily number produced by Twitter in partnership with Topsy labs and polling firms the Mellman Group and North Star Opinion Research. The Index provides a daily snapshot of the sentiment of political conversation on Twitter.

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Besides politics, the I-Follow-You-If-You-Follow-Me microblogging site Twitter could woo quite a few players from the showbiz who are using it to promote their brands. Movies, TV shows and fashion shows are extensively relying on Twitter. (Read: Twitter Making Inroads in the Glam World)

“USA TODAY has always had its finger on the pulse of the nation and with the USA TODAY/Twitter Election Meter we combine the conversations on Twitter with our strength in visual story-telling to deliver a real read on how people feel about the candidates in this year’s Presidential Election. It’s also a great way to encourage people to join the conversation,” said Larry Kramer, president and publisher of USA TODAY.

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Because the discussion of topics on Twitter fluctuates, the daily index number is a weighted calculation based on three days worth of Tweets, with most weight given to the most recent day’s tweets. The index is based on analysis of nearly 2 million tweets each week that mention Romney or Obama.

Announced Wednesday, August 1, the USA TODAY/Twitter Election Meter is at twitterelectionmeter.usatoday.com.

Photo courtesy: USA TODAY