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Carson tops Fiorina in Facebook chatter

Republican presidential candidates Carly Fiorina and Dr. Ben Carson

Yesterday’s two Republican presidential announcements lit up timelines all across Facebook as supporters, detractors and kibitzers chatted up Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina.

Carson’s announcement brought 847,000 people to Facebook to chat about the candidate, generating 1.5 million interactions (likes, posts, comments, shares) related to his announcement.

Fiorina’s announcement brought 304,000 people to Facebook, generating 515,000 interactions related to Carly Fiorina and her announcement.

In the three months leading up to the Carson announcement, an average of 63,000 unique persons each day engaged in a conversation about Ben Carson.

For Carly Florina, an average of 11,000 unique Facebookers engaged in chatter about the former Hewlitt Packard executive.

Facebook activity for announced presidential candidates
Day of uniques, day of interactions and average daily uniques in prior 3 months

Candidate Unique People Interactions Average*
Carson 847,000 1.5 million 63,000
Florina 304,000 515,000 11,000
Clinton 4.7 million 10.1 million 270,000
Cruz 2.1 million 5.5 million 70,000
Paul 865,000 1.9 million 67,000
Rubio 695,000 1.3 million 25,000
Sanders 592,000 1.2 million 47,000

*Average daily number of people who generated chatter for the candidate in the 3 months leading up to announcement day.

The top talked about political topics associated with Carly Fiorina in the week leading up to her announcement were crime and enforcement, employment, and foreign policy and international relations.

For Carson, the topics were crime and enforcement, racial issues, and foreign policy and international relations.

Top states chattering about Ben Carson (by engagement)
1. Maryland
2. Alabama
3. Mississippi
4. Tennessee
5. South Carolina

Top states chattering about Carly Fiorina (by engagement)
1. District of Columbia
2. New Hampshire
3. Idaho
4. Oregon
5. Colorado