Hillary Clinton brushes off Republican candidates during debate

Winning a primary debate online has become just as important as—if not more than—what happens on stage.

CNBC tracked the number of new followers each Republican candidate received, along with their mentions on Twitter, during Wednesday night’s debate. Reporters Nicholas Wells, Eric Chemi and Mark Fahey explained the power of winning with the social media crowd:

For example, in the September GOP debate, we saw Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson gain the most followers during the debate itself — 22,000 each. The next post-debate polls then showed both of them gaining the most among likely Republican voters.

CNBC also posted a chart showing which candidate came out on top:

Though Ted Cruz was mentioned more than 4,800 times in one minute after he made a statement on media bias, and Mark Rubio grabbed more than 3,600 mentions the two minutes after he accused reporters of being “a Super PAC for Democrats,” the clear social media winner wasn’t present on stage.

[RELATED: Elevate your social media game and learn best practices at our Disney World summit.]

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and her social media team tweeted campaign messages throughout the debate, along with live-texting supporters:

Over here getting texts from my girl Hillary. She’s LOLing about this debate. #Hillary2016 http://pic.twitter.com/SUvtdvzmAz

— maggie (@not_excited) October 29, 2015

After several Republican candidates threw barbs at Clinton—Carly Fiorina described herself as Clinton’s “worst nightmare”—the team shot back with a sassy visual tweet:

#GOPdebate http://pic.twitter.com/rBT90JvCmM

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 29, 2015

Twitter users’ responses were largely positive. The tweet has more than 10,000 retweets and 12,000 favorites, and many congratulated Clinton for her timing and humor:

@HillaryClinton social team should buy themselves a drink for this one 👏

— Matt Medved (@mattmedved) October 29, 2015

Well played. RT @HillaryClinton #GOPdebate http://pic.twitter.com/zdDQS6JQyZ

— Carvin’ Pumpkins (@acarvin) October 29, 2015

@HillaryClinton @ctchiappone that is awesome Madame Secretary. No problem with these grunts LOL you could probably debate them in your sleep

— Paul-V-Nikolai (@paul_viktor91) October 29, 2015

@HillaryClinton This is why I love Twitter! #TeamHillary #HILLARY2016

— All Bass, No Treble (@tiffmc1013) October 29, 2015

However, several Twitter users took the opportunity to slam the presidential candidate for the move, and some said using a meme from her Benghazi hearings was inappropriate.

@HillaryClinton I look forward to retweeting this when you lose on election night 2016.

— Jonathan Keller (@jonathankeller) October 29, 2015

@HillaryClinton your social media manager obviously has zero class. And I’m a #Democrat. #sad #childish

— Rosanna M Ortiz (@RosannaOSinel) October 29, 2015

@HillaryClinton @flipcritic http://pic.twitter.com/0z6oy8x8YN

— BATMAN (@Batmancanseeyou) October 29, 2015

What do you think, PR Daily readers: What do you think about tweeting a meme in light of the situation? Is there ever an instance when you’d advise a client to respond in such a manner? What would that be?

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