Social Media Analysis of The Nigerian Presidential Election (2015)

Jonathan and Buhari

The upcoming presidential election in Nigeria is no doubt the current trending topic in Nigeria today and Impact social, a company who specialise in analysis of social media and its impact on politics and policy has over a 4 day period, employed the use of a social media tool which tracks every single conversation, live. All Twitter, Facebook, blogs, 50 million websites, forums etc can be read by them. Information is subsequently graded into Positive, Negative and Neutral to estimate the social media electorate’s view on the most mentioned candidates (JONATHAN/PDP and BUHARI/APC)

Find below the findings of the company’s recent research highlighting social media’s sentiments on the candidates representing PDP & APC.

GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN/ PDP
Positivity towards GEJ personally remains a key driver of the PDP campaign (70% positive / 30% negative). There are still some negative issues weighing down the GEJ camp (Buhari, Chibok, postponement of the election) but again these are “compound” with no single issue driving significant levels of negativity. There is work to do on some of the key issues (infrastructure, education) but in this period messaging on the economy has taken up (6%) of the conversation and is seen as a key GEJ / PDP strength. There is positive sentiment towards the PDP itself with a consistent message around support for GEJ. This period might be characterised as one of good control from the PDP / GEJ camp and shows good potential to keep pressing home the big issues Nigerians care about. This analysis was conducted using random, representative samples of over 40,000 tweets, facebook posts, blogs, forums and news sites in Nigeria which mention PDP or GEJ. Our analysis methodology is proven to be at least 95% accurate.

GENERAL MUHAMMED BUHARI
The conversation is dominated by a general discussion of politics which is neither positive or negative. There are lots of “noisy” side issues being discussed, but these are not being used as a campaign platform to gain traction. Indeed there has been some frustration voiced that APC is not focusing on important issues. It might be said that the campaign lacks consistency and content. Interestingly, momentum around endorsement and vocal support has not carried through despite being prominent on the campaign trail the week before. If anything the lack of message penetration by APC will give

encouragement to the GEJ campaign teams to keep its focus on key drivers (economy, infrastructure, agriculture and education) as it appears that APC has little impact on these issues. This analysis was conducted using random, representative samples of over 32,000 tweets, facebook posts, blogs, forums and news sites in Nigeria which mention APC / Buhari Our analysis methodology is proven to be at least 95% accurate.

Survey by Impact Social

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/social-media-analysis-of-the-nigerian-presidential-election-2015-/201282/