These US Presidential Candidates Use the Social Media As Experts

The US Presidential candidates are using social media like never before.

The countdown for the US elections has started. (Photo: iStockPhoto)

The 2016 contenders for the White House have used social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook as campaign tools to an extent. This was not seen previously in US presidential politics.

But usage and tactics vary widely across the campaigns of the 11 top Republicans and three top Democrats in the race.

Following are some key social media tactics and engagement statistics on the major candidates’ campaigns.

Social media data was gathered on Republicans Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, and Rick Santorum, and on Democrats Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O’Malley.

(Photo: Liju Joseph/The Quint)

The 2016 presidential candidates who follow the most accounts, starting with the highest:

• Ted Cruz
  
• John Kasich
  
• Marco Rubio
  
• Bernie Sanders
  
• Hillary Clinton
  

Donald Trump is following the least number of accounts, followed by Ben Carson and Chris Christie.

(Photo: Liju Joseph/The Quint)

Presidential candidates with the most tweets (including retweets), starting with the highest:

• Donald Trump
  
• Ted Cruz
  
• Mike Bloomberg
  
• John Kasich
  
• Bernie Sanders
  

Ben Carson has tweeted the least, followed by Chris Christie and Jeb Bush.

Presidential candidates whose campaign profiles have been on Twitter the longest:

• Marco Rubio
  
• John Kasich
  
• Mike Huckabee
  
• Martin O’Malley
  
• Donald Trump
  

Hillary Clinton was the last candidate to create a Twitter profile for her 2016 presidential bid, and the campaigns of Chris Christie and Ben Carson joined just months prior to the Democratic presidential front-runner.

(Photo: Liju Joseph/The Quint)

Donald Trump, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee do not have Snapchat accounts, according to a Snapchat representative.

Among all millennials who are likely to vote in the 2016 presidential election, about one-third (34 percent) use Snapchat and nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of millennial Snapchat users are following the campaign closely, the representative said.

(With Reuters inputs)