Jefferson Graham

USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — In the presidential campaign waged on social media, Donald Trump already has the most votes.

That's probably of little surprise to people following Trump's frequent, off-the-cuff Tweets from @therealdonaldtrump. But Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has her own pockets of strength — notably YouTube, which showcases highly produced campaign videos. And she's got a presence where Trump is nearly absent, including Snapchat and LinkedIn.

Social media has made a bigger impact in this election cycle than any other in history, both for breaking news and as a way for citizens to directly connect to candidates. The nominees respond to each other on Twitter, pump up followers on Facebook, and use YouTube to replay stump speeches and showcase campaign ads. It all serves to amplify traditional campaign-trail rallies and produce a huge source of material for the news cycle.

“Conflict sells,” says Michael Cornfield, an associate professor at George Washington University, about why Trump’s tweet rants have been so covered by the media.

Take Trump's recent spat with the parents of a soldier who died in combat. It escalated on Twitter after the father, Khizr Khan, criticized Trump at the Democratic National Convention.

The styles couldn't be more different. Trump has a brasher style and clearly crafts most of his tweets. Clinton's posts tend to be soundbites from her campaign, and many appear created by a social media team. He often uses the platform to settle scores and blast people, while hers are less personalized and more aspirational (though sometimes she takes a dig at Trump.)

“The media loves tweets,” says Jayson DeMers, founder of AudienceBloom, a firm that helps companies with their social media strategies. “They are short, easy to talk about, and and simple to put up on a TV screen.”

In terms of shear numbers, Trump has 22.7 million likes and followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to Clinton's combined 15 million. He's noticed. "I'm head and shoulders above everyone else," on social media, he told the Washington Post this week.

But Clinton is far ahead when it comes to YouTube, where her political ads have drawn in 16.4 million views to Trump's 8.1 million.

With this huge social activity, it's tempting to think voters are more engaged — and thus less likely to vote in November.

Not necessarily. Robert Hernandez, an associate professor at the University of Southern California cautions that Twitter "does not necessarily equate or reflect the U.S. electorate, or the general public."

A closer look at the candidates on social media:

Twitter: The numbers. Trump, who started the campaign with 4 million followers, now has over 10.6 million, while Clinton, who began with about 1 million, now has 8.1 million. Trump has posted 32,800 tweets; Clinton has just 7,260 tweets to her name.

The style. Trump types out opinions (“Obama will go down as the worst president ever”) and re-tweets articles that he agrees with, some from publications like the Washington Post or Daily Mail, and other times from extreme right-wing publications that have included white supremacist organizations.

He retweets comments from actor James Woods and conservative commentator Ann Coulter. His retweets are sometimes a source of controversy. Trump, who usually refers to the democratic candidate as "Crooked Hillary," deleted a tweet after some complained about the use of a Jewish star in the image, calling it anti-semitic, and noting the same image was used on a neo-Nazi message board.

His tweets also directs folks to rallies and posts videos and photos from the events.

“No one has ever beaten or come close to Trump when it comes to Twitter,” Cornfield says.

Clinton uses her @hillaryclinton handle to post pictures from rallies, retweet negative Trump coverage from CNN and CNBC, retweet critical stuff about Trump (including a recent blast from Ohio governor John Kasich), photos and videos from her rallies and bus trip across the mid-west, and quotes from the candidate, which appear to be pulled from her stump speech.

To his constant blasts, Clinton often doesn't respond, but has urged him to "Delete your account," Twitter speak for "Shut up."

Clinton has taken some ground by more often using visuals with her tweets, however. Cornfield notes Clinton got more retweets of her message during the Democratic convention than the Republicans did, by using tweets with images and videos from the event. He published his findings on Medium.

Offering the personal touch has clearly helped Trump greatly grow his audience. But what works for one candidate may not work for another.

“Stream of consciousness tweets appeal to a different type of voter, the Trump voter,” says DeMeers of Audience Bloom. “She’s taking a calculated risk to not go there.”

Facebook: The numbers. Trump has 10 million likes to Clinton's 5.2 million.

The style. Trump is more visual here than on Twitter, with graphics that support his views, short videos talking directly to the camera, complete texts of press releases, photos from rallies and the occasional rant. “CNN will soon be the least trusted name in news if they continue to be the press shop for Hillary Clinton!” said one post.

Clinton’s Facebook re-runs quotes (with photos) from convention and rally speeches, re-postings of Trump gaffes from ABC News and others, behind the scenes photos and campaign ads.

In this presidential cycle, it’s all about Twitter, despite Facebook having a much larger audience (1.6 billion to just over 300 million for Twitter.)

Because the Facebook algorithm only reaches a portion of the audience at any given time (mainly friends or followers), Twitter is seen as the way “to reach the press, influencers and policy makers,” since it’s a public forum that doesn’t require registration to read, says Alan Rosenblatt, a senior vice-president of political communications firm Turner4D.

YouTube: The numbers. Clinton's YouTube channel has 16 million views and 64,000 subscribers, to Trump's 8 million and 45,000 subscribers.

Clinton offers 179 videos here, everything from president Barack Obama endorsing her, tributes to Clinton’s mom and being a grandmother and a “Quick Question” series with soft, human interest Q&As on topics like best advice from her mother and what it was like moving her daughter to the college dorm.

She also showcases clips from the convention, (the same ones seen on Facebook) and campaign speech highlights. The most viewed video is the 2 minute “I’m running,” video she used to announce the campaign, with nearly 5 million views.

Trump’s most viewed video is a short excerpt from him introducing vice-presidential running mate Mike Pence at a press conference, with just over 2 million views. The 43 videos in total feature campaign ads, Trump talking directly to the camera about issues, complete speeches from rallies and short attack ads against Clinton.

Clinton has a stronger following on YouTube because “she posts more often,” says Turner4D's Rosenblatt. And with more campaign cash at her disposal and a larger staff, she has the resources to produce more slick videos, which can be shared to Facebook, Instagram and other outlets.

Instagram: The candidates--2.2 million for Trump vs. 1.8 million for Clinton, use this platform to post photos and videos, the same ones that have been seen on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The difference is they are in the square format of Instagram, and often have text graphics as well. Instagram, which has 500 million daily users, is seen as a play for the youth vote for the candidates.

Snapchat: Clinton has used Snapchat a bit, with the geofilter feature that lets people in a specific area create augmented reality frames for a limited amount of time. Snapchat's audience tends to be young, and very tech savvy.

LinkedIn Clinton has nearly 500,000 followers, while Trump doesn't appear to have an official presence. On LinkedIn Clinton posts articles about such topics as infrastructure and equal pay for women, first seen on her website, as well as her resume.

Meanwhile, with more than 3 months to go until the fall election, Larry Sabato, the founder of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, cautions to “keep it all in perspective"

Yes, the candidates have a large social following, but far more people voted in the primaries, some 28 million (13 million for Trump, 15 million for Clinton) and even more, 135 million, people traditionally vote in the fall election, he notes.

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