Republicans tweet “more effectively” than Democrats in Congress

A recent study by the public relations firm Edelman revealed that Republicans in Congress use Twitter "more effectively" than Democrats, according to the tech blog Mashable.

The Hill reported that 260 Republicans are on Twitter, compared to 194 Democrats. The study also showed that Republicans tweeted, replied, re-tweeted and shared links more than Democrats, with higher levels of engagement in both the House and the Senate.

According to Mashable, Republicans were 3.5 times more likely to mention specific legislation and included 52 percent more links and 60 percent more multimedia than their Democratic counterparts.

The data examined was over the course of 112 days, from Sept. 2, 2011 to Dec. 25, 2011, said Edelman. The congressional handles had approximately 5 million followers, averaging around 11,369 followers per handle.

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Mediabistro noted that Republicans were less likely to engage in "tweeting across the aisle," with 20 Senate Republican accounts and 118 House Republican accounts never having tweeted at a Democrat, while for Democrats the numbers were 16 in the Senate and 79 in the House.

The study also saw some interesting regional trends, with Congressional members from the West seeing the fastest follower growth and members form the Midwest receiving the largest number of replies, while members from the Northeast were re-tweeted the most.

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