After weeks of sexual harassment allegations, contentious press conferences, and that commercial, Herman Cain continues to enjoy strong positive momentum on social media.

Cain is holding his own in a tight three-way race against co-frontrunner Mitt Romney and an ascendant Newt Gingrich. Cain's strong position in the polls is matched his continued excellent performance on social media. Rising poll numbers, plus seemingly unstoppable social media momentum? If you're Herman Cain, that is a pretty good trade-off for the occasional lawsuit or cringe-worthy soundbite.

On social media, Cain has not just maintained his momentum, but actually seen it increase over the past several days. Over the past two weeks Cain has gained more Twitter followers than Gingrich, Romney, and Rick Perry combined. That is a rather incredible feat, and is matched by a similarly strong showing on Facebook. Cain has picked up 50,000 new Facebook fans since late October, which is once again more than all of his GOP rivals combined. That is what we call lapping the field.

In terms of single-day gains on Facebook, Cain grabbed over 8,600 new fans on Nov. 2. Romney topped out at just over 3,300 on Nov. 9. Maybe Romney should get his campaign manager to take up smoking in a YouTube video... eh, just a thought.

Romney still leads Cain by a massive margin in terms of overall Facebook popularity, but in terms of momentum, Cain is clearly tops. And at this point of the race, with primary season just weeks away, momentum is the name of the game.

Perry in particular has seen his momentum slow considerably, gaining just 3,000 new Facebook fans over the past month. Compare that number to Perry's first month as a candidate, where he brought in a staggering 70,000 new fans and it soon becomes apparent that Perry is no longer the GOP savior that he was in late summer. And that's before the full extent of Perry's latest debate gaffe is factored in. On Twitter, Perry has gained around 3,000 followers so far this month which puts him on pace to match his performance for October. But that is a far cry from the halcyon days of September, where Perry gained over 16,000 new followers in his first full month of campaigning. 

On Twitter, Cain has picked up over 18,000 followers since the end of October, which once again puts him at the head of the class. Romney has brought in a rather respectable 9,000 new fans over that same time span. Yes, that is half of Cain's number, but consider this: when was the last time Mitt Romney was a hotter topic of online conversation than Herman Cain? Meanwhile Newt Gingrich, who continues to lead the GOP field in terms of overall Twitter following, gained around 5,000 followers, one indication that his campaign still has some life in it.

When it comes to daily Twitter output, however, Gingrich is another stratosphere than his rivals. Between Oct. 28 and Nov. 10, Gingrich's highest single day amount of tweets from his five official accounts was 199. His next closest rival in terms of one day output? Rick Perry with 48.

The last two weeks have been, by far, the rockiest of Cain's campaign. But he continues to ride a truly impressive wave of momentum, outpacing his rivals in both the polls and on social media. A lot can still happen between now and Iowa, but it is fair to say that Cain has taken quite a few lumps but no knockout punches over the past several days. Cain's critics can continue to question everything from his intelligence to his morality, but they will soon be forced to stop questioning his resiliency.

While the race is still close the big question is simple: can Herman Cain's impressive momentum on Facebook right now translate into votes in the key early states? We can only wait and see.