With the release of their most recent round of campaign finance reports and the seemingly ceaseless barrage of television advertising, there has been much talk lately about the differences in momentum Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner have built up heading into June’s primary.
By most political measures, Whitman is miles ahead: She has far out-raised and out-spent Poizner and has a commanding lead in the polls.
From what we can tell, she’s got the lead in Internet buzz, too. We checked out a few indicators of the candidates' online popularity in places you might not otherwise think to look:
Google Trends:
Score one for Steve. Sort of. According to Google Trends, Poizner's mentions in the news in recent weeks have eclipsed or at least held pace with Whitman's. However, she has consistently been way ahead in search volume – the number of times Googlers have tried to look her up.
Amazon.com Sales Rank
In the battle between Poizner’s "Mount Pleasant" and Whitman’s "The Power of Many," Meg’s book ranks more than 200,000 spots ahead of Poizner’s in Amazon’s sales rankings. Poizner was at 256,726 as of last evening, and Whitman was at 42,207.
Bear in mind that Poizner’s book hasn’t been released yet, so only pre-orders are being tallied. It comes out April 1. Whitman's book, on the other hand, was released in January.
Web site analytics:
Meg again.
Site metrics calculated by Compete.com show that after months of running neck-and-neck, the popularity of Meg Whitman’s Web site has exploded since January, bringing in more than 66,000 unique visitors per month.
Poizner’s site saw a small bump, too, bringing in more than 12,000 uniques.
Whitman’s social media strategy seems to be paying off, with Facebook, YouTube and Twitter being among the top referrers to her site. Besides search engines, Poizner’s site drew most of its traffic from Facebook, Sacbee.com, and (oddly) Craigslist.
It's no secret that Poizner has been lagging in just about every measurable area for months, but we've heard more than once that his campaign has been banking on a hard push as the primary draws closer. The Web and Google metrics seem to show him picking up a little steam, but not as much as Whitman.
We'll keep you posted if his book sales pick up.
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