Illinois Senator Barack Obama is attracting more visitors to his campaign Web site than any of the other presidential candidates according to the Nielsen Company.
Obama Leading All Candidates Online
Nielsen//NetRatings says, BarackObama.com had the most unique visitors in July, with 717,000. Democrat Hillary Clinton trailed with 437,000 unique visitors, followed John Edwards with 348,000 unique visitors.
Among Republican presidential hopefuls, Fred Thompson’s ImWithFred.com drew the most unique visitors in July, with 381,000 even though at the time he had yet to announce his candidacy. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani ranked No. 2 among Republicans online, with 124,000 unique visitors. Ron Paul followed with 113,000 unique visitors to his Web site and John McCain had 104,000 unique visitors to his campaign Web site.
“Consensus has been that Republicans have been slower to take advantage of the Web in their presidential campaigns, but Fred Thompson may be taking a cue from his Democratic counterparts,” said Carolyn Creekmore, senior director of media analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings.
“Rather than shying away from buzz, the Thompson campaign is actively engaging in an online conversation. Thompson’s online announcement is reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s.”
According to Nielsen BuzzMetrics BlogPulse, blog buzz around the keyword “Fred Thompson” has been increasing in the days leading up to his announcement to run for president.
On YouTube, Democrats are leading in popularity of their politically-related video content, with 475,000 unique visitors in July, compared to the Republican’s 275,000. Visitors to the Republican videos are staying longer, with an average visit of over 3.5 minutes compared to an average visit of less than 1.5 minutes to the Democratic content.
John McCain continued to lead online advertising among presidential candidates in July, with a total of 7.7 million online ad impressions. Mitt Romney had the No.2 spot with 4.7 million impressions and Dennis Kucinich was third with 820,000 impressions.
