It is no secret that a battle for the hearts and minds of voters is underway on the Internet. With exploratory groups, official groups and supporters it is difficult at times to see what candidates are winning the online battle.
This is the first Presidential campaign where social media sites like YouTube will impact what users see and know about a candidate. YouTube is the dominant online video destination and we have decided to track how well the candidates video channels are being received on YouTube.
All three major Democratic Candidates have created their own YouTube channel that interested voters can subscribe too. Interestingly it is Barack Obama who is leading the other candidates in terms of number of subscribers and videos viewed.
|
Candidate |
Number of Subscribers |
Videos Viewed |
|
2,809 |
85,206 |
|
|
710 |
33,363 |
|
|
1,116 |
27,585 |
Barack Obama continues to be the grassroots candidate of 2008. It is much too interesting to see whether he can turn this grassroots supports into votes or whether Barack becomes this campaigns Howard Dean.
The Republicans have not gravitated to the Internet like the Democrats have and that can be seen in the lack of subscribers to their channel. Interestingly, Rudy Giuliani leads in the number of YouTube subscribers while John McCain is a distant third behind Mitt Rommney.
|
Candidate |
Number of Subscribers |
Videos Viewed |
|
418 |
18,717 |
|
|
370 |
15,304 |
|
|
244 |
11,290 |
We will be updating this information on a monthly basis to see if there is any correlation between YouTube subscribers and campaign performance.




What Candidates Are Leading on YouTube?…
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