It’s election season and #FeelTheBern is everywhere in my Facebook and Twitter feed. Be it used to rally behind Sanders or to poke fun at his fans, it seems you can’t escape this hashtag. But it’s hard to see the true effect of #FeelTheBern just by considering what’s in one’s own closed-off circle. To get a better picture, a much larger scope is necessary.
Connection
Not surprisingly, the hashtag is tightly tied with both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, as well as the whole democratic debate. While the primaries are part of a larger scale election process, ties with the republican side was very minimal. For example, although Trump is very much a competition for Sanders in the long run, comparison is still mostly limited to Clinton. That said, it must be pointed out Trump is nevertheless the only republican candidate that Sanders is compared to, which leads me to believe that the democrats of Twitter don’t see most other republicans as threats.
Geography
As you might expect, most of the conversation on #FeelTheBern is happening in the States. However, it’s interesting to note that outside the country, there are many people still who are making their voices heard. The map above indicates that a large portion on Europe and South America have stakes in the US election, while Asia and Africa seem mostly indifferent to it.
Another thing to consider is the tweet’s popularity on a national level.
California is the most vocal, followed closely by Texas, New York and Florida. Meanwhile, states that had their democratic primaries during February are surprisingly low on the list, particularly New Hampshire, which saw a Bernie win.
Conversation
Three of the four most retweeted #FeelTheBern tweets are actually in favor of Hillary.
9outof10AmericansNOvote4 #Socialist #FeelTheBern #millennialsforHillary #ImWithHer #CHILDREN https://t.co/5iiydt4FeW pic.twitter.com/8y0coRxFKL
— NadelParis (@NadelParis) February 15, 2016
END OF THE ROAD HAIKU
The #NotOverYet
Hashtag pretty much confirms
the coming #BernOut#SuperTuesday #FeelTheBern— @LowHaikuPolitix (@LowHaikuPolitix) February 29, 2016
Bullied! NOT supporting @HillaryClinton cause female! Best+#electable! #NewHampshirePrimary #ImWithHer #FeelTheBern pic.twitter.com/GqBIFGEcYB
— NadelParis (@NadelParis) February 8, 2016
Whereas #FeelTheBern may have been conceived as a battle cry for those rallying behind Sanders, it may be shifting towards the opposite. If I were him, I’d be very worried about my opponent high jacking my conversation, especially considering the rise of #BernOut and #ImWithHer.
That’s pretty interesting that the most retweeted tweets using #FeeltheBern are in favor of Hillary and it is a smart tactic on their end. Bernie’s campaign should have seen this going on and counteracted in some way.
This is a really interesting way to analyze the conversations surrounding the election. It is a great way to see what candidates are carrying the conversations and what candidates are dropping them. One of the most interesting things in this article is the fact that people are still using #FeelTheBern for tweets that don’t even promote Bernie. The hashtag and phrase in general has gotten so popular the influencer’s on twitter are using it to promote other things that don’t even have to do with the election. It shows how important being aware of top hashtags is.
I think its really interesting to specifically look at the geographic elements of this hashtag and what locations it is used in the most. This can be a good insight into the success or lack thereof that Bernie is having and just get an overall gauge on how popular his hashtag is. I think especially during this time period, it is an important person to be following so I like the choice of hashtag here.
Great topic. I find that the you point out a fascinating idea that he is not compared with Trump. Your reasoning is interesting because it shows that even though we think of Twitter as a global platform there are still silos that people fall into.
I proudly #FeelThe Bern, and I will say that after seeing the Sysomos graphs you included here, I really hope that the California primary swings in his favor. What’s unfortunate is that due to the negative posts you have shared in relation to the hashtag, I hope that the conversation in California is about supporting Bernie, not poking fun at his supporters.