Bernie Sanders' Social Media Followers Are More Engaged, Study Finds
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Despite having fewer followers across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, a new study suggests Bernie Sanders has a more engaged audience of any presidential candidate.
A recent study by social media analytics platform Captiv8 finds Sanders has the most engaged followers.
Michael Lias, Senior Vice President of Social Strategy for Digitas Health, says it's because the Sanders campaign creates shareable content.
"The way that they uses memes in that campaign is a way that people can actually use the content to represent themselves in social media," Lias says.
Donald Trump leads the candidates with the most cumulative followers with 14.1 million, followed by Hillary Clinton with 9.3 million, Sanders with 5.7 million, and Cruz with 2.9 million.
While social media is good indicator of how the public views a candidate, it doesn't mean those 'likes' and 'follows' will turn into votes.
"I'm not sure if it's an indicator of how much people are going to vote for it as much as how much they get talked about," Lias says.
The nine month study measured the number of followers the presidential candidates had on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, as well as the total 'likes' on candidates' posts.
