Per our screenshot below, The Washington Post guaranteed that #Election would be the Top Trend of the day on Election Day through the use of Twitter’s Promoted Trends. This assured that WashPo’s tweets would be the first to appear if any Twitter user in the world searched for the latest tweets associated with #Election.
Exhibit 6: Washington Post Promoted Trend #Election on November 2, 2010
Source: Twitter
Twitter only lets trends with a minimum level of popularity be a Promoted Trend. We think it’s generally smart for someone to promote a trend that is likely to be the top trend anyways, as it insures significant traffic to the promoted tweet. In this case, it should help The Washington Post rise above the tremendous Internet chatter on Election day around all things election related. Twitter stated that this is the first time that any news organization has leveraged the promoted tweet product. We’re quite certain it won’t be the last. It will be interesting to see how much traffic the promoted tweet generated today for WashPo, and how much of that new traffic continues to visit the site after the election.
The New York Times Utilizes Twitter Data to Provide Cool Infographic
The New York Times also leveraged Twitter to provide enhanced election coverage. The exhibit below is a snapshot graphically displaying the volume of Twitter chatter about each of the candidates up for election. The greater the level of chatter, the larger the circle. Users could hit a “play” button, and watch as the chatter rose and
fell for different elected officials from October 21-November 2. It was a uniquely informative tool as we watched some candidate’s presence (e.g., Lisa Murkowski, Kendrick Meek) grow and then shrink in size as stories broke and then fell from consciousness. Other candidates (e.g., Sharon Angle and Christine O’Donnell) had a significant presence from the beginning that never shrank.
Exhibit 7: Infographic on the Volume of Twitter Chatter on Election Candidates
Source: NY Times
