The Engagement Gap - NYTimes.com

The Engagement Gap - NYTimes.com:

Forget the enthusiasm gap, let’s focus on the engagement gap.

In particular, let’s focus on the gap in the level of media engagement — particularly social media engagement — between President Obama’s campaign and Mitt Romney’s. Obama is on the winning side of that gap.

A study earlier this month by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism looked at how the campaigns are using social media this cycle. It found that:

“The Obama campaign posted nearly four times as much content as the Romney campaign and was active on nearly twice as many platforms. Obama’s digital content also engendered more response from the public — twice the number of shares, views and comments of his posts.”

It is too early to say what the Obama campaign’s digital edge will mean on Election Day, but if it can convert virtual engagement into actual turnout, that could turn a tough race into an easy one.

Can Obama campaign convert virtual engagement to actual turnout? – The question sounds very similar to virtual vs. physical collective action.