Emerging Media Research Council Study Featured By WSJ Online

2 Comment(s) | Posted Jan 20, 2010 by Peter Wylie
Peter Wylie

Peter Wylie

The Wall Street Journal highlights portions of our recent Emerging Media Research Council study, which examined the effect of social media on the Brown-Coakley Senate race in Massachusetts.  The study’s main findings were:

  • Brown received more than 10 times more Facebook fan page interactions and views of uploaded videos on YouTube than Coakley.
  • While a larger percentage of Coakley’s Twitter followers actually live in Massachusetts (24 percent to 17 percent), Brown’s total Twitter following in both the state and outside is dramatically higher.
  • Social media outreach has increased Brown’s name recognition among likely voters.  Only 51 percent had heard of Brown in a Nov. 12 survey; his name recognition was up to 95 percent in a Jan. 14 survey.
  • The candidates feature different communication methods in their home page designs.  Brown prominently highlights social networking channels; a Twitter feed dominates his home page.  Coakley emphasizes a blog on the home page, and gives social networks less prominent real estate.

Additional follow-up research by the Council will attempt to parse how much lift Brown gained from social media in his upset win in the election and what it means for the competitive Senate races in November.

Here are other outlets that picked up the research:

-          Huffington Post

-          Waggener Edstrom Thinkers and Doers blog

-          Brand Savant

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Reader Comments

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  1. Joel Sutherland

    January 21, 2010 11:37 AM | Permalink

    Congrats on the coverage guys! It was a good report. This race really crept up on the media - it looks like there were some signs that it was closer than it seemed.

  2. Pete Wylie

    January 21, 2010 11:52 AM | Permalink

    Thanks Joel, we appreciate it. I agree, there were warning signs that were ignored, and Coakley ran a lackluster race. She was advised to concentrate more resources on online campaigning, but failed to do so fast enough. Brown was able to buy up AdWords around Coakley searches, and win the social media battle as well. Interesting stuff.

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