#PHvote: Can social media win you the elections?

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Can social media win you the elections?

The answer to that question–at least in the Philippines–remains unclear.

In the United States, social media played a huge role in campaigns of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Both parties saw the potential of social media to sway voters.

Will the candidates of the 2013 mid-term elections in the Philippines take the same social media route? That’s what we want to find out at Rappler.

As a curtain-raiser to the start of the national campaign period, we’ve taken the top Twitter users among the Senate bets of 2013 (tallied February 12, 2013 at midnight).

Six out of the 10 candidates who topped our list made it to Pulse Asia’s latest Senatorial Preference Survey: ratings-leaders Chiz Escudero and Loren Legarda, followed by Sonny Angara, JV Ejercito, Sonny Trillanes, and Miguel Zubiri.

(Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article contained a table with stats from Facebook. We have removed the table to include figures which were not taken into account on the date of publishing. We will post an update soon.)

Will followers translate to votes? We’ll find out real soon. -Rappler.com