Since Rick Santorum dropped out of the race for the White House last week, conservative social media users have been swarming to Romney’s Facebook page.
The trend started last week and seems to have picked up momentum. According to SocialBakers.com, Romney has been consistently gaining more than 3,000 new likes everyday, and Wednesday proved one of his biggest jumps to date.
On Tuesday, Romney was hovering just above 1,600,000 fans. By the following evening, he had gained about 9,000 new fans. The rise in fans coincides with what some fans are calling a more aggressive social media presence, which included Ann Romney jumping on Twitter, by the Romney camp.
“We are behind when it comes to commentators on TV. They tend to be liberal,” Romney was quoted b y NBC News as saying at private fundraiser. “Where we are ahead or even is on Twitter and on the Internet.
That’s not really accurate, however. There’s still a long way to go before Romney can catch up to President Barack Obama, who’s sitting pretty on Facebook with more than 26 million fans.
And while Romney is gaining traction on Facebook, he’s doing actually doing terribly on Twitter, according to stats from 2012twit.com. During the 24 hours prior to Wednesday evening, Romney had gained about 2,400 new followers on Twitter; Obama scored 48,000.
One possible explanation for the discrepancy might be the level of activity on Twitter. Obama is much more prolific when it comes to posting in 140 characters or less. On Wednesday his campaign threw up 15 tweets; Romney only posted three times.
Of course, even if Romney’s gaining likes and notice on social , it doesn’t always mean it’s positive.
“Romney doesn’t have a clue how to relate the the middle or upper class” wrote Cordelia Hudson on Facebook. “So the poor will really suffer if he become’s president. How can someone who has never had to struggle for anything in his life know how to run a nation !!!”
Such is the campaign trail on social media.
Photo via Mitt Romney/Facebook