Study finds higher digital IQ among GOP senators

Republican senators do a better job than Democratic senators at using social media, says an analysis from two university business professors.

The study measures presence on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, rating senators according to their number of followers, number of "likes," velocity of Tweets or number of uploads. In all, 91 of 100 senators have a YouTube channel and 87 have a Facebook page, say professors Scott Galloway of New York University and Doug Guthrie of George Washington University.

Overall Republican senators have a "digital IQ" of 103, while Democratic senators measure a 98, the study says. Among Senators up  for re-election this fall, the IQ is an average 107 for Republicans and 104 for Democrats. The most conservative senators have an IQ of 113, while the most liberal senators measure a mere 93, according to the study.

The study dubs a handful of senators digital "geniuses," including John McCain (R-Ariz.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), and Scott Brown (R-Mass.). McCain is the study's outlier, having almost 625,000 Facebook fans and 1.7 million Twitter followers.

In four closely contested Senate races, the study finds that the Republican candidates generally enjoy an edge in social media presence. "If social media is the temperature of the digital domain, it may be an especially cold fall for Democrats," the study says.

However, social media advantage in the four races--Nevada, Wisconsin, California and Washington--doesn't translate into leading at the polls, according to separate data from RealClearPolitics.

The political data aggregation site rates all four races as a toss up while Galloway and Guthrie find that in all races except Wisconsin, the Republican challenger to the Democratic incumbent generally does better in social media presence, as measured by number of followers, etc.

For example, according to the study, Sharron Angle, the Republican candidate in Nevada challenging incumbent Harry Reid, has 18,035 more Facebook followers (for a total of 29,322) and 46,515 more YouTube channel views (for a total of 196,576). But the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls of Nevada finds Reid leading Angle by 1.5 percentage points.

Similarly, the study rates Wisconsin incumbent Democratic senator Russ Feingold as having a clear social media lead over Republican challenger Ron Johnson, with 302 percent more YouTube views, 204 more Facebook fans and 932 percent more Twitter followers. But, the RealClearPolitics poll average places Feingold just 2 percentage points ahead in the polls.

Moreover, the study, as Newsweek's Ryan Tracy points out, doesn't measure the engagement of the social media audience. For example, although McCain Tweets often, the messages often communicate little more than his events calendar.

For more:
- download the analysis by Galloway and Guthrie (.pdf)
- go to the RealClearPolitics 2010 Senate election page

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