We’ve been talking about it, laughing at the memes, and analysing results- this week’s first Presidential Debate was certainly something. So how did social media react to the event, and has opinion influenced the race as a whole?

The 90-minute debate surpassed the 10.3 million tweets generated during the Obama/Romney debate in 2012, making it the most tweeted political debate of all time. And as far as viewing audience was concerned, it was anticipated to attract figures similar to the Super Bowl. Gearing up for the event, the Clinton team heightened their email marketing campaign, imploring supporters to utilise each social media platform during the debate. The Trump party even purchased its own Snapchat geo-filter, featuring a “Debate Day” header and slogan, “Donald J. Trump vs Crooked Hillary.” This part of the strategy was seemingly to attract younger audiences- a group the Trump team has seen less support from.

So might social media opinion and promotion from the debate have benefitted either party? To add further negativity to his reputation, Trump was branded a poor debater for his numerous interruptions- Vox reported this to be 70 times! Secondly, his bullish and argumentative approach did nothing to win him any favours with the social media audience. As a whole, the debate in its entirety was little more than entertainment TV, with many of the top political talking points such as foreign policy, the economy and terrorism overshadowed by conversation around the candidates themselves. In this way, each candidate’s personal brand was solidified, but whether for better or for worse remains to be seen. The positive aspect for both parties though, is the amount of big data generated- this will likely help each side to strategise their further marketing moves, including which locations and demographics they need to nurture or target, which political issues voters are most concerned with, and on which key online platforms.

And what might sentiment reveal about the Presidential race as a whole? Overall opinion gathered from the debate’s 80 million viewers and social media users showed Clinton to be the front-runner. However, it was Trump who still went on to declare himself the winner, using online news polls to support his claim. CNBC reported a 61% swing towards Trump as winner, compared to 39% in favour of Clinton, while similar poll results were revealed by DW News, Time Magazine, and ABC news. After further investigation though by DW News who looked at those voting, it was found that most of these poll participants were strong Trump supporters, which not only affected results, but also resulted in Trump dominating the share of social conversation. So with skewed results on social media, plus mixed sentiment both on and offline, there’s a mixed bag of thought when it comes to this year’s Presidential race.

Did you tune into the debate or follow the conversation on social media? Do you think social media is an accurate way to gauge political opinion and outcome? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments on our Facebook page.