Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Social Media
  3. News

Super Bowl blackout generated 231,500 tweets per minute, and other social media numbers

Molly McHugh
By

social super bowlThe Super Bowl has come and gone, but not without dramatic flair. Between the electrical outage, the 49ers near comeback, and the mystical alien-meets-angel entity that is Beyoncé, Super Bowl XLVII offered plenty of entertainment – and apparently kept us talking and typing. In true Twitter fashion, the microblogging platform has released some numbers and details about the day, including:

  • We (unsurprisingly) beat last year’s Super Bowl tweets, racking up 24.1 million tweets about the game.

    Related Videos

  • The biggest moments that got us button-mashing were: The power outage (231,500 tweets per minute, or TPM); the 108-yard kickoff return by Raven’s Jacoby Jones (185,000 TPM); the Raven’s winning moment (183,000 TPM); Jones’ 56 yard caught pass for a touchdown (168,000 TPM); and Gore’s 49ers’ touchdown (131,000 TPM).

    Related

  • The most mentioned players were Ray Lewis, Joe Flacco, Colin Kaepernick, and Jacoby Jones.

  • Of course, the athletes were nearly overshadowed by Beyoncé, whose halftime show spawned 5.5 million tweets (more than were sent during the entire game last year) – including this gem from none other than the first lady herself.

Advertising was naturally a major part of the game. This was the year commercials had pre-event advertisements as teasers … seriously. But the power outage managed to steal their thunder: A handful of brands were able to capitalize on the awkward moment with some incredible quick thinking. Check out these seriously topical promos that hit the Web while the lights were out:

Also getting some attention? The alleged Beyoncé wardrobe malfunction. Sure, it’s no Janet Jackson moment, but there’s already plenty of talk around the World Wide Web about an intimate moment we may have quickly witnessed.

Perhaps the only thing that could have distracted us (but really, could it?) is straight-laced, almost-boring Joe Flacco’s very obvious F-bomb. Oh CBS … we suppose it’s nice to know there’s someone out there having a worse Monday than the rest of America.

Instagram also released some Super Bowl related stats: “Over three million photos that mentioned Super Bowl-themed words in their captions were shared today; and at peak, more than 450 photos about the game were posted every second. During the halftime show, over 200 photos per second were posted about Beyoncé (@baddiebey) alone.” 

instagram sb round up

The photo-sharing network also commented on CBS using Instagram images (from the Ravens and 49ers players – don’t freak out about the company taking users’ photos) in its pre-game show and Oreo’s Instagram contest. If that’s not a sign of the times, we’re not sure what is. 

To sum things up a little and add some perspective, Twitter was mentioned in 50 percent of commercials during the game, Facebook in 8 percent… and Google+ went home empty-handed. And there you have it: Super Bowl XLVII and all the social stats that went with. 

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
What the Superdome control room looked like during the Super Bowl blackout

Beyoncé literally shut the house down after her halftime performance at Super Bowl XLVII, but that wasn't necessarily why the Mercedes Benz Superdome experienced a 34-minute blackout about two minutes into the third quarter. CBS, the network carrying the Super Bowl broadcast last night, released a report early this morning on why some of the stadium's lights and electronic equipments went out.
"A piece of equipment that is designed to monitor electrical load sensed an abnormality in the system," Superdome management companies Entergy Corporation and SMG reported in a statement. "Once the issue was detected, the sensing equipment operated as designed and opened a breaker, causing power to be partially cut to the Superdome in order to isolate the issue."
If you watched the show like millions of your fellow Americans, you may have noticed how CBS sportscasters' microphones cut off mid-sentence in that third quarter. CBS also put together this video package which showed what the control room looked like when power temporarily died.

Watching the Super Bowl blackout was awkward at best. Players on both the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers were sprawled out on the field doing their stretches. CBS studio commentators were basically talking out of their butts to fill in time during the delay. Coaches Jim and John Harbaugh looked grumpier than ever. When the lights came back on, there was also that stupid joke about the sportscaster plugging in his phone charger, causing the lights to go out. Viewers and advertisers, instead, took such opportunity to Twitter to make jokes at the incident, which generated 231,500 tweets per minute and several parody Superdome lights accounts. Seriously, what did people do before social media came around? We would have been so darn bored without it.

Read more
Our favorite, funniest tweets from Super Bowl XLVII
super bowl tweets

Social media and sports go hand in hand - and the Super Bowl is no exception. This year we were treated to more than a few dramatic, hilarity-inducing moments, and some of the best brains behind Twitter took to their keyboards to reflect, share, and shame. Here are some of the best reactions to the game, halftime show, and commercials (and everything else in between). 
To infinity and Beyoncé,
Mrs. Carter took to the stage in all her glory for the halftime show, bringing back Destiny's Child with her. It was a moment no one who was in middle school some 10 odd years ago will ever forget. 

i hope the next superbowl brings the cheetah girls back together
— Tumblr (@SincerelyTumblr) February 4, 2013

Read more
How to use social media and save on Small Business Saturday
small business saturday

Between Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the unending onslaught of online deals, there is another holiday shopping day that might get lost in the shuffle: Small Business Saturday. This year marks the second annual such event, a new tradition that tries to steal some addition from chain retailers and big e-commerce sites and give it to local vendors.
And this year, the fledging ritual is getting some serious attention from social media sites. Facebook, Twitter, and Google have all pledge their efforts in support, offering and encouraging small business owners to use their sites’ tools to promote shopping this weekend.
Local retailers aren’t the only ones who stand to benefit this weekend. What happens to consumers who want the discounts but sans the chain names (that are sometimes attached to controversy) they go hand in hand with? Small business Saturday can fill that void along with the help of some geo-social applications.
Foursquare
Foursquare has been at the top of the social-meets-location game since it began, and Small Business Saturday will be no exception. If you have an American Express card, sync it to your Foursquare account following these directions. Then when you check-in to shops who have partnered with the service via Foursquare on Saturday, you will see a button that says “load to card.” Then when you spend at least $25 or more at the participating store, you’ll get a notification saying $25 was credited to your Amex account. American Express is a sponsor of Small Business Saturday, so ratcheting up sales is in its best interest, but turns out they’re willing to compensate you for helping make the event a success.
Etsy
The purveyor of all things handcrafted is a natural fit for small business Saturday—and will appeal to those who want to buy “local” without leaving their living rooms. Just searching “Small Business Saturday” on the site brought up a slew of items that will be on sale this weekend, and this blog catalogued some of the best e-shops on the site that offered discounts last year.
Daily deal sites
While the likes of LivingSocial and Groupon tend to offer food and spa deals, the occasional local retailer pops up. Between now and Small Business Saturday, a minimal amount of homework and creating an account with one (or all) of these sites could save you some Monday. We'd advise getting with something like The Dealmix, which collects a large variety of all these local deals. Keep an eye out on any of these applications for vendor or shop deals in your area. Then make a call or check Facebook to see if they are participating in Small Business Saturday. Then add those savings to whatever discount the daily deal site was offering. Of course, you should check that you can use coupons during the Saturday sale.
Facebook
Facebook is offering a slew of tools for small businesses to take advantage of, but the site is also catering to consumers. Check out the Small Business Saturday Facebook page and you’ll have access to a variety of information, including city guides for optimizing your local shopping in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, as well as organized events in cities nationwide. Some of them include raffles, free gift wrapping, Santa visits for the kids, and community breakfasts.
Twitter
Be sure to follow your favorite local business on Twitter, if you haven’t already. We’re sure a great many of these sites will have implemented a Follow button (one of the tools in the Small Business Saturday kid), and will be using the hashtags #ShopSmall, #ShopSmallNov26, #SmallBizSaturday and #SmallBusinessSaturday to spread word of their discounts this weekend. 

Read more