News:  I’ve just published my Fifth Report analyzing the videos of the presidential candidates on YouTube.  Barack Obama continues to beat John McCain in popularity on YouTube by wide margins.

You can view and download the report by clicking here.

Go to my report.

The Utube Blog study on Presidential Candidate Videos on YouTube–click to download

News: You can download from the link above my latest report on the use of videos on YouTube by the presidential candidates. The study was completed before the New Hampshire primary.

Analysis: Here are my 3 key findings:

(1) Republican candidate Ron Paul continues to be, by a wide margin, the most popular candidate on YouTube, in terms of the average number of views per video (105,908 views per video) and the number of subscribers to his YouTube channel (42,858). He also has the most total views (9,320,763) on YouTube for any presidential candidate (although he does not have the most viewed single video on YouTube—Mike Huckabee does).

(2) Republican candidate Mike Huckabee has experienced a dramatic growth in the popularity of his videos during November and December 2007. He jumped from close to the worst in average number of views in October 2007 to the second most views per video by January 4, 2008, with 27,818 views per video. Most impressive of all is the fact that Huckabee is the first candidate with a video that has generated over 1 million views on YouTube.

(3) Finally, as the primary season has begun, the candidates’ YouTube videos have seen a huge increase in the number of views than in previous months.

News: The Utube Blog’s second report on the presidential candidate videos on YouTube is now available. Ron Paul continues to blow by the entire field of candidates, both Democratic and Republican. Newcomer Fred Thompson had a disappointing first month on YouTube.

Download: The Utube Blog second report on Presidential Candidate Videos on YouTube

Key Findings

(1) Republican candidate Ron Paul continues to be, by a wide margin, the most popular candidate on YouTube, in terms of the average number of views per video (85,194 views per video) and the number of subscribers to his YouTube channel (29,658). He also has the most total views (4,344,904) on YouTube for any presidential candidate (although he does not have the most viewed single video on YouTube—Hillary Clinton does).

(2) Republican candidate Fred Thompson has drawn only a relatively few number of YouTube viewers in the first month of his campaign, maintaining a very low average number of views per video (3,780 views per video). He gained only 581 subscribers to his YouTube channel. His most watched video captured over 55,000 views.

(3) Overall, the videos of all the presidential candidates have drawn only a relatively modest number of views on YouTube, both in terms of the actual views per video and the average number of views per video.

News: I was interviewed in an op-ed published in the Columbus Dispatch about the study I conducted on the presidential candidate videos on YouTube. As you might have guessed, the hot topic of conversation was Ron Paul.

News: For the past couple months, I’ve been collecting data on all the presidential candidates’ videos on YouTube. Today, I’m publishing my first report, “Analyzing the Presidential Candidate Videos on YouTube August 2007.”

The report reaches two basic findings for the presidential candidate videos thus far:

(1) The presidential candidates have gained only a relatively modest amount of views and subscribers to their YouTube videos; and

(2) Republican candidate Ron Paul is, by a wide margin, the most popular candidate on YouTube, in terms of the average number of views per video and the number of subscribers to his YouTube channel. He also has the most total views on YouTube for any presidential candidate.

Here’s one slice of the report:

View the report: Click here. I’ve also set up a new blog called The YouTube President with a copy of the report. I’ll be collecting my reports there.

Download the report: The Utube Blog study August 2007.doc

(Copyright permission: Please feel free to copy the report and re-use it, including the graphs, in other works, as long as attribution is given to Professor Edward Lee and The Utube Blog. Thanks.)

I will have the answer soon.