Sanders and Clinton Continue to Rank Neck and Neck on Social Media During Last Night's Democratic Debate

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - December 20, 2015) - 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 third Democratic debate which took place on December 19, 2015.

Leading up to the debate, Clinton led for overall eValue score on both Facebook and Twitter. However, during the debate, Sanders was able to tweet his way to the top of the rankings on Twitter.

"Social media is a powerful channel for candidates to leverage during their campaign. We continue to see candidates increase their following and eValue score during debates by retweeting tweets from their followers and live tweeting the debates, highlighting powerful statements they made during the debate to engage followers," said Bryan Segal, CEO at Engagement Labs.

Clinton maintained the lead on Facebook, publishing a number of posts leading up to the debate leveraging the #DemDebate hashtag. Sanders came in a close second.

Recently, Sanders stepped up his social media strategy to engage with followers on Facebook and Twitter, and we are seeing his eValue scores on both channels increase.

Leveraging the hashtag #DebateWithBernie, Sanders posted a link on Facebook leading up to the debate to encourage followers to create their own #DebateWithBernie avatar. On Twitter, where we saw Sanders take Clinton for the top eValue score, Sanders tweeted more than any other candidate and had the highest active user base. Leading up to the debate, he posted a series of tweets that stated his position on important topics such as income equality, refugees, the current economic state of the country and the Iraq war.

On both Facebook and Twitter, Sanders took the top spot for follower growth, overtaking Clinton and O'Malley. Sanders gained 13,561 on Facebook and 10,610 followers on Twitter. However, on Twitter, it was Republican candidate Donald Trump who had the highest increase of followers during this debate, gaining 13,511 new followers on the channel. Trump gained more followers on both Facebook and Twitter than he gained during the Republican debate last Tuesday. Trump gained 11,165 new followers on Facebook. 

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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