As Barack Obama took the oath of office as the 44th US president (twice as it turned out), the world watched via numerous media outlets. But fittingly for a president who, as a candidate, used social media to such tremendous effect, the world did more than watch: it liveblogged, tweeted, streamed, Flickr’d, Facebooked and podcasted.
For you analytical types, Mashable has a “by the numbers” roundup of inauguration social media stats, complete with predictably spiky charts and graphs. Some highlights:
- Twitter: Five times the normal tweet volume, with 150,000 tweets containing “Obama” over the course of the day.
- YouTube: 332,000 new videos with the tag “Obama” uploaded this week.
- Flickr: Over 80,000 inauguration-related photos uploaded this week
CNN and Facebook scored a coup by teaming up to pair the live video stream with ongoing comments and status updates. Once again Mashable has the numbers: with millions logged in, 600,000 status updates were posted through CNN’s live Facebook feed, averaging 4,000 per minute during the broadcast. And those are just the Facebook stats. CNN.com served over 21.3 live video streams.
Interestingly, the CNN/Facebook partnership directly competed with a Current TV/Twitter combo that provided a similar experience. So we’ve reached the stage where it’s no longer “mainstream media” vs. “upstart new media.” We now have “mainstream” cable and Web new media players facing off with upstart new media brands. Regardless, media outlets are moving beyond just broadcasting the news; they are increasingly providing spaces online where people around the world can share their perceptions, reactions and direct experiences, and so contribute to making the news.
Bonus: Photographer David Bergman posted a 1,447 megapixel image of Obama giving his address. It’s interactive: you can zoom/pan to any detail.