According to a recent social media study, GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul has the highest “viral reach” among the current GOP presidential candidates on Facebook.

The study, conducted by Czech analytic company Socialbakers, analyzed data between Dec, 1, 2011 and Dec. 31, finding that, “Ron Paul has the highest overall viral reach, followed by Mitt Romney and Rick Perry.”

“Viral reach” was calculated as the “total reach for each candidate when people ‘like’ and comment, multiplied by the average number of friends per Facebook user to provide a comparable number,” Socialbakers wrote in a statement about the study on Monday.

Ron Paul also “increased engagement rate by 69 percent, followed by a near tie between Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich, with a 58 percent increase and 57 percent increase respectively,” the statement read.

Facebook was chosen for the study, according to the statement, because of a recent Pew study that Facebook users are more politically engaged and are more than twice as likely to participate in political meetings or rallies.

Michele Bachmann leads “in person-to-person interactions among Facebook users, followed by Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman.”

Socialbakers calculated person-to-person interaction by measuring “all debates, comments, conversations to each other’s posts on candidate’s page.”

Forbes reported in October that Socialbakers was founded in 2008, recently raised $2 million in funding, is “profitable” and “counts 30 of the Fortune 500 as customers.”

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