Twitter traffic during debate highlights influence of new communication tools

The way people communicate is changing rapidly. As new tools for staying connected emerge, consumers are finding easier and more interesting ways to share their opinions and information. Phone calls and emails are being replaced with instant messaging and social media.

According to a new blog post from Twitter, the first Presidential Debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is the most tweeted event in political history. Over the 90-minute event, 10.3 million posts were registered, reaching as much as 158,690 tweets per minute.

By comparison, during the 2008 debates between Obama and John McCain, only 500,000 tweets for created total during all four debates. The first two minutes of the Obama/Romney debate saw two million tweets.

The debate also showed how the right exposure can generate massive followings. When Romney mentioned cuts to programs like PBS and quipped about loving Big Bird, numerous fake Twitter handles popped up, including @FiredBigBird that received 1,000 followers per minute.

How businesses can benefit from this information

While employees using Twitter to communicate about important business decisions is impractical, it highlights what workers are comfortable with when it comes to sharing thoughts and data. With smartphones and tablets growing in functionality, workers are able to stay connected away from the office and mobile applications are making it easier than ever.

Unified communication (UC) systems can incorporate these tools into business strategies and allow employees to stay in touch in their prefered method. Companies in Ohio that are looking to upgrade their communication strategies would be wise to partner with an IT consulting firm.

From our offices in Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland, PRO OnCall is your single-source technology consulting service, offering managed IT support, unified communications solutions and on-call IT support.