Obama vs. Romney 2012 Social Media Barometer Dashboard (Week ending 10/14/2012)

This past week the analysis of social media conversations has shown a shift in the sentiments for Romney.  It is not clear what is driving this shift, whether it is the first presidential debate, the vice presidential debate, or a combination but there is definitely more positive sentiment towards Romney as of the past week.
The highlights of the week for the period ending 10/14/2012 are shown below:

• Share of voice for Obama is up slightly from 49.9% last week to 52.4% this week.
• Positive sentiment held steady for Romney at 73% positive sentiment to negative, but the positive to negative sentiment for Obama dropped to 51% this week versus 64% last week
• All of Obama's web metrics declined in the last week.  Romney however saw declines in Traffic Rank and average time on site, but increase in % reach (up 2%) and page views per visitor (up 8%)
• Word clouds continue to highlight conversations focused on winning, with "Win debate," and "Win election" figuring prominently in the discussion.
• Both candidates are adding Facebook fans rapidly, and Twitter followers increase as well albeit at a slower rate.
• Most search trends have focused on the candidates themselves, for the most part other personality mentions in conjunction with the presidential election have ceased, the notable exception being Big Bird in owing to Romney highlighting him at the first debate and subsequent mentions in political advertising.