Fans and Voters: 74% of House Candidates, 81% of Senate Candidates With More Facebook Fans Won

MediaPost has posted a great roundup of metrics from a variety of sources that describe the increase in social media traffic related to the November 2 U.S. election.  Some traffic and usage highlights:

  • Internet traffic overall surged on Tuesday, according to Akamai Technologies, which said activity peaked at 5.7 million page views per minute in the evening, 32.5% higher than the 2008 peak of 4.3 million page views per minute.
  • Over 12 million people posted status updates on Facebook saying they voted — up 120% from 2008, when 5.44 million people reported voting on Facebook.
  • Location-based social networks also posted stats on user engagement:  50,000 people checked in at polling places on Foursquare to claim the limited-edition “iVoted” badge — a fraction (1.25%) of Foursquare’s own total user base of four million.

MediaPost also looked at the ability of sites like Facebook to predict winners:

  • 74% of House candidates with the most Facebook fans won their contests
  • In the Senate, 81% of candidates with the most Facebook fans won their contests

More details and analysis at MediaPost.