Assessing @HillaryClinton’s viral Super Bowl Tweet

By
Wednesday, 5 February 2014

The Seahawks weren’t the only ones buzzing on Twitter during the Super Bowl. @HillaryClinton made waves when she tweeted this last Sunday:

The Tweet is a great example of how to tweet in unexpected ways that can build engagement and interest. Secretary Clinton isn’t known for her comments on sports, but she was one of the 5.6 million people tweeting about #SB48. Her good-humored Tweet established the fact that she was following the game — and that she had a wry observation about the network airing it, which is often less than friendly to her professionally. She tweeted at the right time, too — in the middle of the game.

The Tweet led to a surge in engagement and follower growth for Clinton.

With more than 57,000 Retweets and counting, the message is by far her most retweeted. In fact, @HillaryClinton was mentioned 55,700 times surrounding the Super Bowl, more than 12% of her total mentions since joining Twitter last June. She gained approximately 33,600 new followers — 10 times her average daily follower growth. It also made for her third-highest single follower growth day since joining Twitter. In addition, her Tweet was embedded on dozens of websites and news publications, as displayed with the headlines feature.

Clinton wasn’t the only politician tweeting about the Super Bowl. Louisiana Governor @BobbyJindal, host of last year’s Super Bowl, joined the conversation to comment on last year’s #superbowlblackout:

Jindal, too, saw a boost in engagement by commenting on Twitter conversation. His Tweet garnered 4,000 Retweets and more than 4 times his daily follower growth, making it one of his most engaging of all time.

Do you know of other innovative uses of Twitter? Write to mediablog@twitter.com.