Sanders Is Gaining Ground on Social Media

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - January 18, 2016) -  Technology and data company Engagement Labs (TSX VENTURE: EL), creator of eValue Analytics™ score, today released rankings of the top performing U.S. Democratic Presidential candidates on Facebook and Twitter, during the fourth Democratic debate which took place on January 17, 2016.

Leading up to the debate, Hillary Clinton was the frontrunner on Facebook while Bernie Sanders lead on Twitter with the highest eValue scores. Following the debate both Clinton and Sanders continued their dominance on each respective social media channel.

eValue Rankings of the Top Performing Democratic Candidates on Facebook and Twitter:

Source: Engagement Labs eValue ™ U.S. 2016 rankings of Democratic Candidates on social media.

"Social media has given rise to the second screen, with many American's watching the presidential debate on TV, while following the conversation online. Both the Clinton and Sanders' camps leveraged the second screen by live tweeting during the debate, calling out important issues discussed and leveraging the #DemDebate hashtag to interact with the online conversation. Throughout these debates we continue to see social media becoming a prominent platform for the candidates to leverage in order to interact with the American public and ultimately gain voters," said Bryan Segal, CEO at Engagement Labs.

Rankings of Highest Follower Growth for Democratic Candidates on Facebook and Twitter Based on the January, 17 2016 Debate:

Source: Engagement Labs 2016 rankings of Democratic Candidates' follower growth on social media

While Clinton maintained the highest overall eValue and Impact scores on Facebook, Sanders managed to captivate online audiences garnering the highest Engagement score. Sanders top Facebook post, stating that he does not get "personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs," a slight dig at Clinton, managed to garner over 49,000 likes and 19,900 shares. Clinton's overall eValue score on Facebook may have been a few points higher than Sanders', but the mass engagement Sanders is receiving on the social platform is demonstrating that his campaign is picking up, both in the polls and online.

It was said to be a Sanders focused debate and that held true on Twitter where Sanders stole the social media show with the highest Engagement score, highest active user base, and the highest number of mentions, likes and retweets per 1000 fans, further demonstrating his followers high engagement with his content. Clinton tied with Sanders for highest Impact score.

On both channels Sanders gained the highest number of new followers, gaining 9,388 new fans on Facebook and 14,711 fans on Twitter. Clinton trailed behind gaining 6,254 fans on Facebook and 10,918 on Twitter. Sanders leads for overall number of fans on Facebook, while Clinton remains the Democratic candidate with the highest number of fans on Twitter.

Republican candidates Rand Paul and Jeb Bush tweeted their opinions on the #DemDebate in an effort to join in on the online conversation. However, Donald Trump, despite being silent on social media during this debate, still managed to garner the highest number of followers of the Republican candidates with 10,170 on Facebook and 13,069 new followers on Twitter.

"As the candidates build up to November elections, social media will be imperative for for them to voice their opinions and educate American voters of their stance on important issues, especially the younger voter demographics. We will continue to see the candidates leverage the channels in unique ways to gain attention and create engagement. For the Democratic party these channels will be important tools to to gain momentum in this race," notes Segal.

About Engagement Labs

Engagement Labs (TSX VENTURE: EL) offers intelligent Total Social™ data, analytics and insights for marketers and organizations enabling them to track, measure and benchmark the conversations happening around their brand or industry both online and offline. These conversations are proven to drive critical business outcomes, including sales, while Engagement Labs' tools provide data and actionable insight to help guide business decisions and power marketing effectiveness.

Engagement Labs' eValue™ Analytics tool is the global benchmark for social media scoring. eValue's proprietary data technology offers real-time analysis to measure a brand's social media and digital marketing efforts, distilling it down to a single meaningful number between 0 and 100 - an eValue score. Composed of a series of metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), an eValue score measures social media Engagement, Impact and Responsiveness which is benchmarked against 100,000+ handpicked and verified brands. The Keller Fay Group, an Engagement Labs company, is the only firm to regularly measure offline conversation, which independent research finds is a significant driver of sales with twice the impact of online conversation.

Engagement Labs maintains offices in Toronto ON, Montreal QC, London UK and New Brunswick NJ.

www.engagementlabs.com / www.kellerfay.com

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