Tweets equal dollars for Obama and Romney, according to Twitter

Twitter advertising works, says Twitter.

If you’re American, and you’re on Twitter, you may have noticed that there’s an election on. Twitter users have been seeing an avalanche of political tweets in past weeks as the U.S. election heats up. The recent presidential debate alone generated 10 million tweets, which makes it the most tweeted event ever in U.S politics.

All those tweets — and especially the paid promoted tweets — are translating into increased donations to political campaigns, says Twitter. To track exactly how political tweets influence voters, Twitter commissioned a study from Compete.

Above: Frequency drives action

Image Credit: Twitter

According to the results, Twitter users in general are more politically active than average internet users, being 68 percent more likely to visit Barack Obama’s or Mitt Romney’s campaign donation page.

But Twitter users — I refuse to say tweeps — who follow a political party, or who see political tweets retweeted by someone they follow, are 97 percent more likely than the average Twitter users to surf over to one of the party’s donation pages.

That’s good news for Twitter, which lost no time suggesting that, as Election Day approaches in less than a month, Republican and Democratic campaign managers and boosters buy ads on the social news site:

As Election Day approaches, the most efficient way to increase your campaign’s impressions is by utilizing our suite of promoted products. Contact us at politics@twitter.com to get started.

Another result in the study is that, unsurprisingly, frequency drives behavior. Twitter users who see more political tweets, were more likely to visit donation sites. Promoted tweets, which are seen more and for longer than other tweets due to their enhance visibility in search and on profile pages, could then be very valuable for political campaigns.

The two things the study did not reveal?

First, whether people who visited the donation sites actually contributed, or how much they gave. And second … who people will actually vote for in November.

For that, citizens are actually going to have to vote, not just tweet.

photo credit: Vox Efx via photopin cc