In less than a month from now, one of the most important elections in the world will be held. The American voters will elect their President who will decide the fate of the United States for the next four years.
The current Republican President and nominee for the 2020 US Presidential election is challenged by the Democratic party nominee Joe Biden. You might also know him as Barack Obama’s vice-president, but his roots in politics go back to the 1970s.
Joe Biden is polling ahead of the Republican nominee Donald Trump. Although, if there’s anything that the 2016 elections have taught us is that the polls can be misleading. National polls are a good way to analyze how popular a nominee is, however it isn’t an accurate statistic to predict the flow of the election.
The election is approaching and polling companies are trying to gauge the flow of the election by interviewing voters. The nominees are also leveraging every means possible to connect with voters to increase influence and support for the election. One of the most sought-after means is the popular social media platform Twitter.
Twitter is the most prominent platform for users to debate, criticize, argue, and express opinions. Almost every political figure in the world uses Twitter to engage with the voters.
The Role of Twitter in the 2020 US elections
Both Joe Biden, the Democratic Party nominee, and President Donald Trump have increased their Twitter activity. But never before has a President spoken directly with its citizens with the same frequency as Donald Trump.
Donald Trump’s personal Twitter profile has over 86 million followers, and the official presidential account adds another 31 million followers. This gives him the chance to engage with potentially 117 million users directly without the involvement of the press. Potentially because there could be users that may follow both accounts.
Compared to Trump, Joe Biden only has 9.58 million followers on Twitter. In matters of overall reach on Twitter, Biden is way far behind. Trump has a massive advantage because of the enormous number of followers he has and his commitment to leverage that advantage. Trump often uses Twitter to talk about important topics or express his opinions on the same. On average, Trump sends out between 15-18 tweets each day. No presidential nominee or a president has ever been this vocal on any social media platform. Since the press follows the president’s tweets zealously, it gives him another advantage that increases exposure.
The 2016 presidential election is a prime example of Twitter’s potential in influencing voters. Even after the ban of political ads on Twitter, it still plays a major role in deciding the flow of the election.
Trump VS Biden
Twitter paid a fundamental role in turning the tides of the 2016 US elections and regardless of the ban on political ads it still holds significant influence. In this post, we analyzed the Twitter activity and history of the nominees of the 2020 US elections using FollowersAnalysis. Let’s dive in,
Donald Trump (@realdonaldtrump)
Donald Trump was born on 14th June 1946 in Queens, New York. He is the current President of the United States of America and also the Republican nominee for the 2020 presidential election. Before beginning his career in politics, he was a well-known businessman and a popular television celebrity.
He took over his family business in 1971 and rebranded it as The Trump Organization. He entered the 2016 US presidential election and won an overwhelming victory against the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
As for his political stance, he is considered to be a populist, nationalist, and protectionist.
- Original Tweets, Retweets, and Replies
Analyzing the past 3200 tweets of each nominee helped us gain valuable insights and understand the tweeting habits of each nominee. After analyzing the tweets, we found that Trump sent out 1133 (35.41%) tweets. Trump has been very vocal on Twitter since the 2016 elections and posts on average 15.74 tweets per day.
Frequently posting tweets to engage with the citizens has worked very well for Trump. He has built a very loyal and engaging follower base. Trump has over 62% tweets, that’s 27.63 retweets per day.
But when it comes to replies, Trump is selective on which tweets to reply. Although, it’s no surprise as a president has to be very careful while engaging with followers so it doesn’t tarnish his reputation.
- Tweet Timeline
The tweet timeline statistic evaluates the number of tweets sent out by the user against the months in which they were sent out. It can help you gauge the Twitter activity of the user month.
By analyzing Trump’s we can easily observe that he was the most active in the month of August. This was the same month the US President officially accepted the Republican presidential nomination and express his gratitude to the people.
- Client Source
The client source statistic helps you identify the platform the targeted account uses to post tweets and how often they use it. With President Donald Trump, it is quite clear that he often uses the official Twitter app on his iPhone.
- Best Time to Tweet
The best time to tweet refers to the time you should post tweets to receive maximum engagement and reach. Upon analysis of Donald Trump’s tweets, the best time to tweet is between 12:00 (UTC) to 13:00 (UTC). This is the time frame when he can receive maximum engagement and exposure.
- Most Mentioned Hashtags
Trump has been very active on Twitter promoting his campaign with the hashtags #maga (Make America Great Again) and #americafirst. Apart from political campaigns, he has also used to discuss key issues like #hydrochloroquine during the worldwide pandemic. He has also taken to Twitter to discuss the National Defense Authorization Act with the #ndaa.
- Most Mentioned Username
Trump’s most mentioned username is @realdonaldtrump and is expected as he has to promote himself for the election. Apart from promoting himself, Trump has often mentioned @foxnews, @usdot, and the Democratic party nominee @joebiden in his tweets.
- Top Retweeted and Liked Tweets
Trump has always used Twitter to make his political stance clear but often not respectfully and pleasingly as expected from a president. However, his way of expressing his opinions is habitually offensive but at the same time hilarious content for the trolls.
His most retweeted and liked tweet states if the US citizens can protest amid this worldwide pandemic they can surely go to vote. This tweet has garnered over 137K retweets and 600K likes.
Joe Biden (@joebiden)
Joe Biden was born on 20th November 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He has also served as the 47th Vice-President of the United States. During his time as a senator, Biden was a long-time member and eventually the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
He was also the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dealing with issues key like drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties.
- Original Tweets, Retweets, and Replies
The tweet analysis of Joe Biden’s past 3200 tweets provides valuable insights into his tweeting habits. Biden’s past 3200 tweets are from Oct 2019 – Sept 2020, whereas Trump’s tweets are from July 2020 – Sept 2020. This clarifies that Biden is just not as active as Trump on Twitter.
In this time, Biden has sent out 2886 tweets and amount to 90.19% of all tweets. This is a very good percentage of tweets, but when we consider the time span, it is nowhere near Trump’s Twitter activity.
As for retweets and replies it 192 (6%) and 122 (3.81%) respectively which is very low.
- Tweet Timeline
The tweet timeline of Joe Biden shows a steady Twitter activity. But the months of Feb – March – August 2020 show a spike in tweeting activity. Although when compared to Trump, the Twitter activity of Biden is quite low.
The month of August shows the highest Twitter activity. This is the same month he resumed his political campaign and invested millions of dollars to attack Trump with paid ads on all social media platforms.
- Client Source
Similar to Trump, Biden also uses multiple client sources to post tweets on Twitter. His most preferred client source to post tweets is Tweet Deck. Although he has often used Twitter Media Studio and Twitter Web App to post tweets and to express his opinions.
- Best Time to Tweet
With Joe Biden, the best time to post on Twitter is between 0.00 – 1.00 UTC. The tweets sent out in this time frame have gained the maximum number of retweets and exposure.
- Most Mentioned Hashtags
Biden has leveraged Twitter to promote himself and increase the influence of his political campaigns. He has frequently used his political campaign hashtags in his tweets. #demdebate, #teamjoe, and #demconvention are some of the most mentioned hashtags by Biden.
- Most Mentioned Username
Biden’s most mentioned username is @joebiden, which is no surprise as he too has to promote himself in the 2020 US elections. @drbiden and team joe are some other @mentions used to maximize the reach of his political campaigns.
He has also mentioned and promoted the Democratic Party Vice-Presidential nominee @kamalaharris in his tweets.
- Top Retweeted and Liked Tweets
Some of Biden’s tweets are simply hilarious while some discuss and debate the key issues of the presidential election. Joe Biden also discusses and criticizes the way President Trump handled the Coronavirus outbreak. His most popular tweet has over 329K retweets and 1.65M likes.
Closing Thoughts
While Donald Trump has proven himself by overcoming odds in the 2016 election Joe Biden is also a veteran who played a major role in Obama’s administration. So far the election polls favor Biden, but they also favored Hillary in the 2016 election.
Twitter played a vital role in turning the tides of the 2016 election and the current nominees are trying to leverage it in every possible way to increase exposure. We need to further analyze and assess every metric of their social media presence to gain more insights and draw a better picture.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Adios!
