The 2012 political conventions had many great moments, from Michelle Obama’s moving speech supporting her husband’s nomination to Clint Eastwood’s kooky appearance that involved talking to an empty chair on stage.
It is through the power of social media platforms, such as Twitter, that allow those who aren’t attending the convention to closely follow the political action minute-by-minute. Voters are able to follow delegates, journalists, and campaign officials for the most up-to-date information about the political party they are interested in.
Twitter made its biggest impact at the final day of Democratic National Convention, when President Obama gave his nomination acceptance speech. The number of tweets that were sent during the president’s speech set a new Twitter political record reaching a stunning 52,757 per minute.
Twitter’s Government and Politics team announced the new record later that evening, stating that a whopping 9.5 million tweets were sent about the Democratic National Convention, with 4 million of them coming on the final day when President Obama delivered his speech. That compares to statistics gathered from the Republican National Convention that totaled around 4 million tweets for the entire convention, with Mitt Romney peaking with 14,298 tweets per minute during his acceptance speech.
The number of people sharing their thoughts about Obama’s speech was consistently high throughout the entire night. The biggest reactions on Twitter came when Obama said key phrases such as, “I am no longer the candidate, I’m the President,” as well as, “I will never turn Medicare into a voucher.” The reaction over Obama’s key phrases exceeded all other moments at both the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
Another interesting fact—Obama gained points on the ‘Twitter Political Index,’ which measures how tweeters feel about a candidate on a scale from 1 to 100. President Obama is currently at a 52, which is two points higher than before he delivered his acceptance speech, compared to Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who currently ranks at a 9.
Speeches by First Lady Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton, and actor/director Clint Eastwood also caused quite a stir in the Twitter-sphere. According to an online social networking service, Michelle Obama’s speech generated an impressive 28,000 tweets per minute, a number that’s double the amount of tweets generated from Romney’s acceptance speech, which was about 14,000 tweets per minute.
Bill Clinton also seemed to make a huge impact on voters with his powerful and moving speech supporting President Obama. According to the Washington Post, the total number of tweets that were fired off during Clinton’s speech between 10:35 to 11:23pm was 496,222! Celebrities such as Olivia Wilde, Eva Longoria and Zachary Quinto all tweeted how impressed they were by Clinton’s speech, with Albert Brooks even saying, “Ok. I’m convinced. I’m voting for Clinton.”
Nevertheless, it was actor/director Clint Eastwood that inspired the most interesting reactions on Twitter prompted by a kooky, long-winded conversation with an ‘imaginary Obama’ represented by an empty chair. His point was to tell the ‘Obama chair’ that it had failed to deliver his promises over the last four years, and it is time to let Romney take over as president.
However, his unique speech may have backfired because people seemed to be more interested in the bizarre conversation with the empty chair than the actual speech Eastwood was trying to deliver. Twitter instantly exploded with comments mocking Eastwood, and minutes after he began his speech a Twitter account called @InvisibleObama was created and has already gained 70,000 followers. As it turns out, there was more discussion on Twitter about Eastwood’s strange speech than Romney’s actual acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.
The point is, as I’m sure you’ve surmised, Twitter and Social Media were on fire during this charged time. And it’s only going to get better.