US election gives Twitter opportunity to prove its mettle as a serious news platform
The US election has afforded Twitter further opportunity to cement its status as a serious news platform, one it has grabbed with both hands thanks to Barack Obama’s embrace of the platform .
Obama stole a march on the mainstream media by claiming victory first via the channel – before taking to the stage in Chicago to deliver his victory speech. Obama tweeted: ‘This happened because of you. Thank you.’
A few minutes later Obama followed this up with ‘We're all in this together. That's how we campaigned, and that's who we are. Thank you. –bo,’ culminating in his post of the most popular tweet ever.
Both sides in the campaign had harnessed Twitter as a tool for mobilising support, as well as to snoop on each other’s tactics.
Twitter itself states that more than 31m election themed tweets were penned on Tuesday night, making it the ‘most tweeted about event in US political history’, eclipsing the previous record of 10m in October.
In the moments immediately following Obama’s win Twitter erupted un a maelstrom of tweeting with 327,000 messages being posted each minute.