Clegg fever seems to have gripped social media over the last week following his performance in the leaders’ debates. There is no doubt that his profile has been lifted within the online community. As a result Nick Clegg is enjoying a trending status on Twitter, which leads one to wonder how much of a social media profile Mr Clegg had before the leaders’ debate relative to his competitors, and how this has developed. Using Radian6 to do some social media research we can analyse the level of Clegg’s increase in popularity and also uncover where he is being talked about.
Gordon Brown was the most discussed leader running up to the first debate. The share of voice pie chart below shows he had a 48% share of the conversation. At this point, Nick Clegg had the lowest at just over 22%.
Figure 1: Share of voice between the party leaders in social media prior to the first debate
