Technology and Social Media at the Conventions

The role of technology in our everyday lives either as consumers or as citizens cannot be denied. Using technology as consumers affects the economy. Utilizing it in the exercise of our rights as citizens definitely influences the political landscape.

Indeed, in the advent of the Internet that connects computers and electronic gadgets as well as the introduction of mobile devices ( IPADs, Tablets, iPhones and Smart Phones) as tools to communicate; to gather data, info, knowledge; to educate; to deliver and respond to various kinds of messages; and to entertain and be entertained, such a role has become more significantly defined.

This is especially true when technology is used in social media involving major events. Two of such events were the national conventions of the Republican Party, which was held in Tampa, Florida and the Democratic Party, which was held in Charlotte, North Carolina.

While the conventions were going on, noticeable were the number of tweets registered. According to the data released by Twitter and published by press agencies and bloggers online, during the two-week convention season there were 16 million convention-related tweets. There were only 360,000 tweets for the same period in the 2008 party conventions.

On Election Day in 2008 there were 1.8 million tweets globally on all topics. Comparatively, on Thursday night of the Democratic National Convention, there were 4 million tweets.

During the 3 days of the Republican convention, there was a total of 4 million tweets – equivalent to the number of tweets during the last night of the Democratic National Convention.

During the entire week of the Republican convention 7 million tweets were sent, while during the period of the Democratic convention, 9.5 million tweets were sent.

President Obama’s speech generated 52,756 tweets per minute which, according to Twitter, is a record. Gov. Mitt Romney’s speech, on the other hand, reached a peak of 14,289 tweets per minute.

It must be noted, however, that the number of tweets does not necessarily mean all positive views for the speaker.  They could be  responses to other tweets and retweets.

Tweets during Vice-President Biden’s speech peaked at 17,932 per minute while Congressman Paul Ryan’s peaked at 6,669 tweets per minute.

Both the speeches of Michelle Obama and Ann Romney were very effective and generated thousands of tweets per minute accordingly. The former generated 28,003 tweets per minute while the latter had 6,193 tweets per minute.

Former President Bill Clinton’s speech was definitely the most persuasive and convincing one in the entire convention. It generated 22,087 tweets per minute. Among the Republicans, Florida Senator Marco Rubio who also delivered a stirring speech ranked second at 8,937 tweets per minute.

Other speakers who had significantly high tweets were Clint Eastwood (7044 per minute); Gov. O’Malley (7602); Gov. Patrick (6909) and Gov. Christie (6079).

Facebook also monitored the mentions of Obama and Romney in status updates, comments, posts and shared posts. It reported that Obama had 192 percent more citations than Romney.

I understand that the citizen and consumer participation via Twitter and Facebook is also reflected in TV ratings.

With the other features of the gadgets that attendees brought and used during the two conventions, we can just imagine how many photos and videos were taken and emailed and/or uploaded for the benefit of friends, fans and followers.