If name mentions on social media show how well their messages are connecting with voters, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz would be facing off in next year's presidential election,
according to The Wall Street Journal.
On Facebook, Clinton is number one, while Cruz is ahead on Twitter.
Clinton and Cruz have dramatically different approaches to social media. The Texas Republican, who has more than 404,000 followers, tweets roughly 31 times a week, while Clinton, with 2.83 million followers, tweets about one time a week.
On Facebook, Cruz has more than two million likes on all of his pages combined, while Clinton "does not maintain a Facebook presence," the Journal reported.
The data from Facebook and Twitter only covers mentions of a politician's name and does not indicate whether the messages are positive or negative. But the most shared tweets tend to be news articles about the person or ones that share a prospective candidate's message.
One of the most aggressive social media presences is that of Sen. Rand Paul, who is expected to make his presidential bid official in April,
reports The New York Times.
During Super Bowl weekend, the Kentucky Republican tweeted instructions to followers about how to make a "liberty" paper football with the slogan "Rand 2016." Paul also tweeted a link to a recording of a fictitious conversation between Mrs. Clinton and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
On "countless occasions,"
Politico reported earlier this month, Paul "has used the platform to take swipes at his political adversaries."
Paul used it to describe Clinton, Bush, and 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney as "all #thingstorunfrom." The long list of Democrats who lost in November's midterm elections are "#HillarysLosers."
The tactic is "a great way to energize his base," social media experts told Politico, but it can misfire on occasion.
That happened recently when Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell crashed one of Paul's Twitter sessions to correct a spelling error in a tweet criticizing Bush's position on the Common Core educational issue.
"You misspelled friendship," Campbell tweeted. "Maybe there is something to be said for higher standards?"
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