The Voices Behind the Choices

A look at the social conversations that drove the conventions

When it comes to social media monitoring, ANYONE can listen to EVERYONE. It’s easy to plug a few keywords or hashtags into a social listening tool and let the results wash over you. It’s like drinking from a fire hose.

But the kind of social listening that makes a difference for our clients involves listening to the right conversations at the right time, by targeting the right influencers who are shaping the conversation on social media.

Which is what MSL did for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

MSL built Delegate Tracker, a proprietary listening tool devoted exclusively to the ‎monitoring the Twitter presence of delegates at both conventions. We built lists of more than 2,800 delegates tweeting from Cleveland and Philly. We looked at over 50,000 tweets over eight days of political oratory and intrigue.

We gathered a number of insights from listening to delegates during both conventions.

The biggest speeches in the hall were NOT the biggest moments for delegates on Twitter. The highest volume of GOP Delegate tweets came during Senator Ted Cruz’s speech imploring Republicans to “vote your conscience.” The highest volume of tweets at the DNC came during Vice President Joe Biden’s speech attacking Donald Trump’s “malarkey.” Why were there fewer tweets for the nominees and the headliners? Simple. The delegates themselves were in the convention hall. They were watching and cheering, instead of tweeting.

Ideology and controversy were big winners for delegates on Twitter. Two of the most polarizing figures at the conventions were Senator Cruz (who was booed when he conspicuously failed to endorse Donald Trump in his speech) and former Ohio state senator Nina Turner (who was denied a speaking role at the Democratic convention because she conspicuously refused to endorse Hillary Clinton). But despite their polarizing presence, hashtags supportive of Cruz and Turner — #CruzCrew and #ImWithNina — were among the most popular hashtags among delegates at the conventions.

We’ve compiled some our findings from Delegate Tracker into the infographic below. As this election progresses, we’re going to continue to monitor these delegates. After all, they are the party activists and local elected officials that make up the “grasstops” influencers who impact public policy in all 50 states.

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