Vice-presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin may be in the headlines, but the chatter in the blogosphere remains focused on the presidential candidates, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, according to Nielsen Online.
Online Buzz
An analysis by Nielsen of the online discussions around more than 30 speakers at the Democratic and Republican conventions showed Obama leading McCain, followed by Palin and Sen. Hillary Clinton. Vice-presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden, rounded out the top five most buzzworthy politicians.
| Rank | Speaker | Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barack Obama | 100 |
| 2 | John McCain | 97 |
| 3 | Sarah Palin | 80 |
| 4 | Hillary Clinton | 33 |
| 5 | Joe Biden | 26 |
| 6 | George W. Bush | 12 |
| 7 | Michelle Obama | 12 |
| 8 | Bill Clinton | 11 |
| 9 | Cindy McCain | 5 |
| 10 | Ted Kennedy | 5 |
| 11 | Nancy Pelosi | 4 |
| 12 | Mitt Romney | 4 |
| 13 | Al Gore | 4 |
| 14 | Joe Lieberman | 4 |
| 15 | Rudy Giuliani | 3 |
| 16 | Fred Thompson | 3 |
| 17 | Mike Huckabee | 3 |
| 18 | Laura Bush | 2 |
| 19 | Jimmy Carter | 2 |
| 20 | Mark Warner | 2 |
| Source: The Nielsen Company. Nielsen’s analysis is based on online consumer discussions between August 25 and 29, 2008 for DNC speakers and from Sept. 1 to 5, 2008 for RNC speakers. | ||
| Speakers are ranked by online buzz, with the top speaker indexed at 100. |
Online Traffic
Web traffic to BarackObama.com increased 32% during the week of the Democratic National Convention. During the same period, traffic to McCain’s website increased 242%, perhaps driven by the announcement, late in the week, of Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Still, traffic to Obama’s site outpaced traffic to McCain’s site by a two-to-one ratio in the week ending August 31.
| Site | Unique Audience Week Ending Aug. 24 (000) |
Unique Audience Week Ending Aug. 31 (000) |
Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| BarackObama.com | 2,617 | 3,445 | 32% |
| JohnMcCain.com | 524* | 1,791 | 242% |
| Source: The Nielsen Company, custom analysis (August 18, 2008 – August 31, 2008) | |||
| *This website does not meet minimum sample size standards. Projected and average measures for this site may exhibit large changes as a result. |
Online Advertising
John McCain’s campaign increased its online advertising in August, with image-based impressions up by 254% month-over-month and sponsored search links up by 43%.
Barack Obama’s campaign placed fewer online ad impressions during the same time period, reducing image-based impressions by 48% and sponsored links by 18%.
View the full media alert.
Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in TV Week, The Boston Globe, Condé Nast Portfolio, and Silicon Alley Insider.
