#Election2012 breaks records on Twitter

As Barack Obama was re-elected for #4moreyears and now has #2Termz in office, this year’s U.S. Presidential elections saw some jaw-dropping firsts for Twitter. According to the Twitter blog, the US elections were the most-tweeted event in Twitter history. Traffic hit an all-time peak of 327,452 tweets per minute at 11:19pm ET. And minutes after various media outlets in the US projected Obama winning the elections, the President’s account tweeted a picture of Obama hugging his wife, Michelle, with the caption “Four more years.” This got nearly half a million retweets within two hours, the most for his account and any election-related post. The tweet currently has 528,292 retweets and 179,051 favorites and is the most popular of all time.

Four more years. twitter.com/BarackObama/st… — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 7, 2012  

Interesting Trends A record total of 31 million tweets were registered on Election Day. Users were encouraged to use the hashtag #election2012 for election-related news and information. Twitter government also set up a dedicated page for the hashtag, which curated tweets, videos and photos from the election and refreshed in real-time. Also, election-related topics dominated Twitter trends in most parts of the world. Besides #Election2012, popular trends during the polling were #ElectionDay, #TeamObama and #TeamRomney. As an Obama win was projected towards the end of electoral vote tallying, #2Termz, #4MoreYears, #Obama2012 and #MyPresidentIsBlack took the top spots in the Worldwide Twitter trends. Election fever even reached tweeps in the Philippines. The terms ‘Barack Obama’, ‘Romney’, ‘USA’ and #USElections were trending topics in the country. Awwww Obama Netizens showed their funny side as they waited for official announcements, trending #SongsObamaIsPlayingRightNow.

#SongsObamaIsPlayingRightNow "And I say hey, what a wonderful kind of day!" — Arthur Read (@arthur_read8) November 7, 2012  

#SongsObamaIsPlayingRightNow Look at me now "Romney I dont see how you hate from outside the White House? You cant even get in..haha leggo!" — Will (@WillyFerrell) November 7, 2012  

#SongsObamaIsPlayingRightNow Party In The USA. — Jacob Whitesides (@JacobWhitesides) November 7, 2012  

The term ‘Awwww Obama’ also trended in the US after Obama mentioned his wife Michelle in his victory speech, thanking her for standing by him through 20 years of marriage. — DVM, GMA News