Short Takes: Cain Tops Perry in Search, Social

Cain, who soared to the top of last week’s Wall Street Journal/NBC poll last week, is also besting the struggling Perry in social media, despite not having the profile of being a state governor. As of late Friday, Cain had nearly 117,000 Twitter followers versus Perry’s 96,000 (both trailed frontrunner Mitt Romney’s 133,000 or so followers, though, to be fair, Romney’s been running for president for five years). Cain also has more Twitter support than Rep. Michelle Bachman and Rep. Ron Paul

Interestingly, a Twitter account purported to be Rick Perry’s hair had just 962 followers as of last week.

Similarly, on Facebook Cain has assumed comfortable control of the number-two spot with over 272,000 likes versus 167,000 or so for Perry and over 1.1 million for Romney.

Of course, whoever does end up claiming the Republican nomination has miles to go before catching up with the current most-powerful social-media man in the world. President Barack Obama has 10.6 million Twitter followers and 23.5 million Facebook fans. The only Republican who comes close? Gov. Sarah Palin, who boasts of more than 677,000 Twitter followers and 3.2 million Facebook fans.