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April 5th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda The social media buzz surrounding a political candidate can sometimes predict election results, according to a new study from Nielsen.
Nielsen looked at four elections held during the 2010 midterm: two Senate races (in California and Florida) and two governor elections (in Ohio and Maryland). In three of those four races, the candidate with the most social buzz ended up winning the race.
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As Nielsen notes, correlation doesn’t imply causation: just because the most buzzed-about candidate won their election 75% of time doesn’t mean it was social media alone that propelled them to victory.
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Additionally, the study found that the share of social buzz for a particular candidate was often different than the proportion of the vote they received, suggesting that social buzz isn’t an absolutely perfect predictor of electoral results. In Florida’s senatorial race, for example, Marco Rubio had only 40% of the social buzz but won 49% of the total votes — and the election.
SEE ALSO: Republicans in Congress Use Twitter ‘More Effectively’ Than Democrats [STUDY]Nielsen also took a look at social buzz as a predictor of voter turnout — does more social excitement mean more people are going to head to the polls on Election Day? Not so much. The two states in the study with the highest voter turnout had the least overall social buzz about the elections, though the 2010 elections brought out more people than usual for a midterm.
Other interesting takeaways? Democrats and Republicans split the social buzz directly down the middle — 50% for each side of the aisle. Online buzz also followed the same pattern in all four contests: lots of excitement immediately after primary day, then a lull before activity picks up once again during the week leading up to Election Day.
Do you think social buzz is a reliable indicator of election results? Sound off in the comments below.
Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, sjlocke
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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