Presidential candidates succeed on Twitter with sass, pop culture, and youth appeal

It turns out that if you're a presidential candidate and you want to go far on Twitter, you'll have to get a tad irreverent and get the kids talking.

Analyzing the tweets of the mainstream candidates since their respective campaign announcements, we found that displays of panache, pop culture savvy, and even a little sass seem to go far.

The most-popular tweets reflect both the image that candidates want to project and the messaging their supporters respond to most. 

That being said, sass and pop culture seem to be solid bets for any candidate.

For instance, since the announcement of her presidential bid, Hillary Clinton has had the most retweets and favorites with a tweet referencing the British boy band, One Direction:

Tweets that appeal to the younger part of Clinton's base seemed to trend toward the greatest success: her next two most popular tweets celebrated the then-recent decision to legalize gay marriage nationwide, and after that came the declaration that "No student should have to borrow money to pay tuition at a public college." 

Hillary got some more heat tweeting her takes on current events?, supporting women's reproductive rights, sharing throwback photos, and throwing down at Donald Trump.

Throwing down, however, is Trump's specialty.