Who watched the World Cup on Sunday? Honestly, I didn’t even know about this event. That might also be because I’m not much of a sports fan. When I woke up that morning, I reached for my phone and that was the first thing I noticed. My timeline was full of the following hashtags: #worldcup, #soccer, #TEAMUSA, #Japan, and #FIFA. I didn’t have to turn on the TV. I read the details and “watched” the finale unfold. For not being a sports fan, I was enthralled. That might also be the nerd and social media fanatic in me wondering if this would break some Twitter record and it did!
The final game between the USA and Japan set a new record of 7,196 tweets per second. I’m proud to admit that I contributed two tweets to the total effort and was ecstatic they went through. No Twitter meltdown or fail whale. The last record set by a sporting event was this year’s Super Bowl with 4,064 tweets per second.
While I’m a little bummed by the Team USA loss, I know they fought and played well. This is also an amazing victory for Team Japan – a healing win – considering all they’ve had to go through this year with the earthquakes and tsunamis. Perhaps, the Universe is smiling down upon them.
Twitter records and the reaction heard and seen around the web is a stark reminder of the power of social media and how it help you and your business. If we’re breaking records left and right, there’s probably a good reason for that. People are turning to Twitter and Facebook to talk about what’s going on, to express their opinions, and get a reaction. Chances are they’re also talking about your brand. Shouldn’t you be listening and participating? What was your reaction to the game? Did you watch?