A four million Tweet convention: That’s a wrap for #GOP2012

Friday, 31 August 2012

It’s the final night of the #GOP2012 convention and it was a blockbuster ending in terms of the conversation on Twitter. Tonight, the total number of Tweets sent about the Republican National Convention hit four million soon after the end of Governor Romney’s speech — nearly doubling the total count before today.

And while most people joining the conversation on Twitter couldn’t be here themselves, they were brought closer to the events of the evening and the candidates thanks to the Tweets from Tampa. Tonight we saw incredible behind the scenes pictures documenting @MittRomney readying himself to take the stage and accept his party’s nomination.

And now back to the numbers. Gov. Romney’s speech earned the three biggest spikes in conversation of the entire convention — his biggest moment on Twitter occurring at the conclusion of his speech (14,289 Tweets per minute) and the second when he mentioned President Putin at about 11:09 p.m. ET (13,267 Tweets per minute).

While Gov. Romney dominated the night on Twitter, both @marcorubio and Clint Eastwood earned the second and third biggest moments on Twitter of the entire convention, respectively. Rubio’s biggest spike was 8,937 Tweets per minute, Eastwood’s was 7,044 Tweets per minute.

As the nation tuned in to watch tonight’s speeches, Twitter was the place they shared their observations— be they serious or snarky. One creative response to Clint Eastwood’s moment onstage with the empty chair was the creation of @InvisibleObama, an account providing voice to the unseen President. In just 45 minutes the account had gained over 20,000 followers and had been mentioned over 10,000 times on Twitter.

That’s it from Tampa. Keep following @gov for updates from the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.

Posted by Adam Sharp (@AdamS
Head of Government, News and Social Innovation