November 7, 2012

Election Day 2012: Social Media Roundup

November 6, 2012 marked yet another historic Election Day as President Barack Obama was reelected. But just how historic was the day in terms of social media? The 2012 Election was one of the most shared and commented-on events in social media history, so we’ve rounded up some interesting facts and figures from this year’s campaign season.
First off – which candidate won the social media war? BostInno caught up with BIGfish President David Gerzof Richard for his take on which Presidential candidate was leading the social media race – and true to the election’s actual results, Obama was the clear winner. A quick glance at the numbers shows Obama winning in every category.

Obama also set a Twitter record yesterday for the most retweeted tweet ever – a photo of himself hugging Michelle with the caption “Four more years” was retweeted more than 682,000 times (and counting). The previous record was held by Justin Bieber at 200,000+ retweets.

Obama also seems to have won the Internet meme war, for two main reasons. First of all, Romney’s comments in the Presidential Debates (à la Big Bird and binders full of women) created instant fodder for meme creators – Obama’s comments simply weren’t as easy to “meme-ify.” Secondly, most of the people behind these memes are young, 20-somethings, who traditionally tend to align closer with the Democratic party’s views. The result? More memes mocking Romney, and less poking fun at Obama.

But the greatest success for social media this Election Day? No sign of the Twitter fail whale! Despite Twitter’s record number of tweets last night – peaking at 327,452 tweets per minute as news organizations began calling the results of the election – the website didn’t once notify users that the service was currently “over capacity.” Users tweeted their way through Election Night without any disruptions in the most tweeted-about event in U.S. political history. Cheers to that!