Which Policy Areas are Most Visible in the Race for the Presidency?

Brandwatch creates US Electoral Compass to track & rank top issues by state

While the presidential candidates take stock of their campaign performances in the lead up to election day, the battle wages on across Twitter as people ready to head to the polls. Now more than ever before, Twitter has stepped up to play a large role in shaping the coverage and deciding the winners and losers of this month’s presidential debate series. And the media world watches on.

To help aid media insights, social media monitoring provider Brandwatch has launched a new data-visualisation tool which has been aggregating all relevant US presidential Twitter, as well as press conversation since the beginning of July 2012. Analyzed according to candidate, source and policy area, the US Electoral Compass allows users to quickly and easily navigate political buzz through the interactive timeline, showcasing the evolution of real-time issues in each state and the variations in coverage each candidate is attracting on both Twitter and in the local press up until election day.

According to last week’s coverage of Ohio, a crucial battleground state, for example:

Military issues were more likely to be discussed by the press in the state than any other issue, in connection with both candidates
The military policy area constituted the largest share of tweets linking the President to an issue in Ohio, with employment and the broader economy close behind
Romney, however, was much more often noted alongside economic issues by tweeters than Obama, a reversal of how print media in the state saw it last week

Gareth Ham, Brandwatch’s Head of Insights explains: “The media and analysts alike value the visibility of candid, unstructured thoughts of real voters as opposed to the sometimes limited insight solicited by opinion polling. Having real-time access to these views offers a powerful means of gauging the electoral issues that matter most to the US public and where they are deemed most relevant.”

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About Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a social media monitoring and analytics company. The Brandwatch tool helps companies find conversations about their brand or market online, in real-time. Powerful insights and analysis on sentiment, market trends, customer opinion and brand reputation are used by over 500 global agencies and brands that rely on Brandwatch to leverage incredible data and give their business the edge. Founded in 2007, Brandwatch is used by names such as HSBC, DDB, Ipsos and Mediacom. Based in Brighton, UK, the company also has offices in New York and Germany. For more information, please visit https://www.brandwatch.com.