The latest Iowa Poll shows Herman Cain and Mitt Romney in the lead two months before the Iowa caucuses. They are followed by Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry.
But is that the way the social media world sees the candidates? Let’s see how the top candidates are tracking on Twitter and Facebook (numbers updated as of Oct. 30, 2011).
| Candidate | Iowa Poll % | Followers | 7-day growth | 1-month growth | 3-month growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herman Cain | 23 | 144,898 | 6.1% | 65.5% | 181.9% |
| Mitt Romney | 22 | 151,473 | 4.1% | 32.2% | 143.2% |
| Ron Paul | 12 | 74,278 | 1.6% | 8.4% | 23.4% |
| Michele Bachmann | 8 | 108,818 | 1.5% | 9.2% | 66.4% |
| Rick Perry | 7 | 99,941 | 1.5% | 7.1% | 98.3% |
| Newt Gingrich | 7 | 1,339,154 | 0.1% | 0.5% | 1% |
| Rick Santorum | 5 | 35,452 | 3.4% | 22.1% | 170% |
| Jon Huntsman | 1 | 44,856 | 4.3% | 16.1% | 83.8% |
| Candidate | Iowa Poll % | Likes | 7-day growth | 1-month growth | 3-month growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herman Cain | 23 | 307,734 | 2.9% | 44% | 96.4% |
| Mitt Romney | 22 | 1,155,064 | 0.8% | 2.8% | 8.5% |
| Ron Paul | 12 | 567,616 | 1.1% | 7.6% | 32% |
| Michele Bachmann | 8 | 459,635 | -0.1% | -0.3% | 4.8% |
| Rick Perry | 7 | 169,100 | 0.6% | 1.9% | 126.9% |
| Newt Gingrich | 7 | 157,734 | 0.9% | 5% | 10.6% |
| Rick Santorum | 5 | 31,322 | 1.1% | 7% | 32.3% |
| Jon Huntsman | 1 | 21,421 | 2.7% | 11.4% | 118.1% |
The social media numbers seem to support the Iowa Poll numbers. Herman Cain is seeing large growth both on Twitter and Facebook.
Mitt Romney is seeing a large growth on Twitter. Romney has not seen huge recent growth on Facebook, but he already had a strong following there (with more than 800,000 followers as far back as March).
Michele Bachman hasn’t seen much growth recently, which may indicate (as the Iowa Poll results show) that her campaign is losing steam. The same thing goes for Rick Perry.