For the past 10 months, Mark Zuckerberg has crisscrossed America. His 30-state trip has been both a charm offensive and a focus group, a chance to step out of his bubble in Silicon Valley and see how different communities use Facebook. He’s toured a train yard in Nebraska, chatted with “folks” in Texas, fished in Alaska, and fed a calf in Wisconsin, all while sharing finely crafted updates with his 97 million Facebook followers.



The campaign-style tour has generated speculation Zuckerberg might run for president in 2020 (he told BuzzFeed News he’s not planning on it). But it hasn't done much to improve the public’s perception of him, according to new data obtained by BuzzFeed News.

Zuckerberg’s Q Score, a measure of how public figures are regarded by the public, has not changed significantly since January 2016, according to Henry Schafer, executive vice president at Marketing Evaluations, Inc., which measures Q Scores.

A Q Score is a widely used likability rating for public figures that’s derived by measuring the percent of people familiar with a public figure who say that person is one of their favorite personalities. Elon Musk’s Q Score, for instance, is 24%, while Bill Cosby’s is in the single digits.

Zuckerberg’s positive Q Score increased from 14% to 16% between January 2016 and September 2017, Schafer said. Meanwhile, his negative Q Score, which is the percent of people who rate him “fair” or “poor,” increased from 22% to 23%. Zuckerberg’s Q Score rates similarly to Ashton Kutcher, Rachael Ray, Charles Barkley, and Mark Cuban, who all have positive Q Scores of 16.

“The net effects were a couple points up, but not significant overall,” Schafer told BuzzFeed News. “You need about a five-point change in either direction to be significant.”

A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment, instead pointing BuzzFeed News to Zuckerberg's post announcing the tour, where he said, "My work is about connecting the world and giving everyone a voice. I want to personally hear more of those voices this year."