The 2008 presidential election came to be known in some circles as the first ‘Twitter Election.’  Then candidate Barack Obama and his campaign team used Twitter, Facebook, and other digital platforms masterfully and won the White House.  Understanding the use of social platforms to speak to and interact with voters is still the benchmark in national politics eight years later.

For today’s post, I thought I’d take a quick snapshot of how the GOP and Democratic candidates stack up when it comes to pressing the ‘digital flesh’ if you will.

I used Facebook and the popular Facebook page reporting platform LikeAlyzer by Meltwater to get a glimpse into which candidates in the 2016 field are getting the most from their digital initiatives in the chase for the White House.  The polling data was obtained from a national average of polls by Real Clear Politics.

No predictions here.  It was just an interesting exercise for a digital media guy. Take a look, take a lookers!

Top Republican Candidates:

Donald Trump

• RCP poll average – 34.6%

• Facebook Fans – 5,436,042

• LABM Grade – 94

• Report Card Recommendations – Ask more questions, Better post timing needed.

Ted Cruz

• RCP poll average – 18.8%

• Facebook Fans – 1,814,165

• LABM Grade – 88

• Report Card Recommendations – Ask more questions, Better post response timing needed, post more photos.

Marco Rubio

• RCP poll average – 11.2%

• Facebook Fans – 1,205,493

• LABM Grade – 82

• Report Card Recommendations – Ask more questions, Post more photos, Check post length.

Ben Carson

• RCP poll average – 8.4%

• Facebook Fans – 5,051,510

• LABM Grade – 85

• Report Card Recommendations – Ask more questions, post more photos, Like more pages.

Jeb Bush

• RCP poll average – 4.8%

• Facebook Fans – 317,799

• LABM Grade – 78

• Report Card Recommendations – Ask more questions, Better post timing needed. Post more photos, better response time needed.

Top Democratic Candidates:

Hillary Clinton

• RCP poll average – 51.2%

• Facebook Fans – 2,290,992

• LABM Grade – 87

• Report Card Recommendations – Post LESS often, Use Hash Tags, Like Other pages, Ask more questions, Better post timing needed.

Bernie Sanders

• RCP poll average – 38.0%

• Facebook Fans – 2,453,671

• LABM Grade – 91

• Report Card Recommendations – Ask more questions, Better post timing needed. Like other pages, Use Hashtags.

Martin O’Malley

• RCP poll average – 2.2%

• Facebook Fans – 109,844

• LABM Grade – 86

• Report Card Recommendations – Ask more questions, Better post timing needed. Post MORE often.