Can social media predict the election?

EVEN the most seasoned political minds in the country may not be able to predict this election like social media may be able to.

Who has won the election on social media?

SOCIAL media has played an important part in this election. In a world first, the Leaders’ Debate was broadcast exclusively through news.com.au and Facebook Live, which showcased exactly how important social media is.

Meltwater, a media intelligence platform ran through the social media data from the last month with some surprising results.

“The data points to the fact that there is an even share of voices between the two parties and leaders. You would imagine based on that data there is quite an even split” David Hickey, Director of Meltwater ANZ, said.

In the month leading up to the election the Liberal Party received 57.7 per cent of the total number of conversations around the two prominent parties, the data — provided exclusively to news.com.au — revealed.

The total number of conversations around the parties.

The data is from several social media sites including Facebook and Twitter along with blogs.

In the month leading up to the election, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (54.6 per cent) edged out Opposition Leader Bill Shorten (45.4 per cent) in terms of the number of social media conversations revolving around each leader during the election.

Malcolm Turnbull sentiment wheel ... he’s Mr Popular, but only by a small margin.

Meltwater data has previously predicted several Oscar winners and compares social media sentiment to general public sentiment.

“Undoubtedly politicians pay a lot of attention to what things are being said in the media and results in various polls but social media is an exceptional barometer as to the feeling and sentiment of the general public.”