Back in July, Facebook and CNN announced a partnership that they said would make Election 2012 a more social experience. And little by little, the team has been unveiling small parts of that social coverage. Today, they’ve announced another small piece of the machine, real-time “Election Insights.”
The Election Insights page is housed on CNN’s site, and features charts and graphs based on real-time data from Facebook concerning the amount of buzz each candidate is receiving. The tool tracks President Obama, Paul Ryan, Joe Biden, and Mitt Romney and displays information like the percent change in people discussing them, as well as demographic breakdowns of the conversations.
“Facebook is naturally a place where friends engage in political discourse, and we’re pleased to announce that the Facebook-CNN Election Insights tool will offer an interactive, real-time glimpse into how and where this conversation is taking place across the country,” said Elliot Schrage, Vice President-Corporate Communications & Public Policy at Facebook.
Political junkies can do they’re own demographic breakdowns by filtering the data based on state, gender, age, and time period. And for those who wish to get involved in the conversation, the page feature a Facebook comments plugin.
According to Facebook, the two entities worked with Mass Relevance to create the Election Insights tool.
“Today’s launch builds on a previously announced multi-platform partnership between CNN and Facebook intended to bring an interactive and uniquely social experience to CNN’s on-air, mobile and online audiences and Facebook’s more than 160 million U.S. users. The Facebook-CNN Election Insights tool is powered by Facebook Insights and was designed and developed by Mass Relevance, a social integration firm that specializes in the curation and display of real-time social content.”
Last week, Facebook and CNN unveiled the “I’m Voting” app, which allows Facebook users to share their political leanings (candidate support, positions on the issues, party perceptions, etc.) with their friends via Open Graph sharing.
Facebook’s U.S. Politics and Government team is currently taking on the GOP convention.