Obama speech sets Twitter record

MANILA, Philippines – Sitting US president Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on September 6 generated so much buzz on Twitter that it created one of the biggest political moments ever on the popular micro-blogging site.

Twitter said, “President Barack Obama’s (@BarackObama) acceptance speech at #DNC2012 set a new record for political moments on Twitter, with 52,756 Tweets per minute coming just after its conclusion.”

Twitter reported that the 3 day convention drew in “an incredible amount” of conversation, spawning 9.5 million Tweets during its duration. The final day of the convention alone brought in roughly 4 million Tweets, which is roughly equivalent to the number of tweets garnered during the entire Republican National Convention.

Obama’s top 5 tweetable lines all hit peaks in tweets per minute that were higher than any other moment for speakers in either convention, according to Twitter.

His biggest line of the night – “I’m no longer just the candidate, I’m the President” – gave the commander-in-chief temporary command of the Twitterverse when it was tweeted 43,646 times.

A social media savvy campaign

Since the 2008 presidential race, Obama’s campaign has harnessed the Internet and social media to reach young voters, who are considered a crucial voting block.

Obama’s convention speech seemed carved up into perfect chunks for web distribution. Media scholar Robert Thompson of Syracuse University told Reuters that the speech was split up into 7-minute “segments that are perfect for YouTube.” He added, “This was a speech made for use by the Democrats for social media.”

A day after the speech, Obama is still feeling the good will from the online community.

The Twitter Political Index, which charts how tweeters feel about a candidate on a scale of 1 to 100, placed Obama at 41 and his competitor Mitt Romney at 8.

The index shows that while the two candidates have remained in the same sentiment range for much of the race, Obama has had much larger spikes in positive ratings.

But the real test will be how many voters come out to the polls on election day. – Rappler.com