It’s good to see Twitter mature. Looking over the data for total tweets during last night’s State of the Union address (Twitter released more on their blog), we can pull two immediate examples of just how much the site has grown as a tool for political discussion in just one year.
This year, the State of the Union address sparked 1.36 million tweets, as opposed to the 766,000 tweets created during last years address.- This year, the peaks in Twitter activity were responses to middle class opportunities, gun control, and education policies. Last year’s peak was a joke about spilled milk.
How did this happen? It might have something to do with outlets like CNN “priming” the discussion with “Tweet of the Union” contests. It may also have something to do with the massive tweet pushes during the past three presidential debates.
And though there was a significant gap in the quantity and quality of tweets between the State of the Union address and the Republican response speech, (at most, the Republican speech sparked 9,200 tweets per minute, mostly because Rubio awkwardly sipped water in the middle of it), the Republican address also showed that both parties are equally adept at deploying and using Twitter. Rubio quickly controlled any damage his gaffe caused by poking fun at himself on Twitter. And his press secretary created this awesome 6-second Vine gif.
In short, Twitter is bigger, smarter, and all around better than it’s ever been before.
