Election Day Sees 31 Million Tweets

Tweets surge as news organizations call the presidential election, according to data posted by Twitter

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/7/2012 10:48:59 AM

Twitter activity surged on Election Day, Nov. 6, with over 31 million tweets, according to a blog posted by Adam Sharp, head of government, news and social innovation on Twitter's official blog.

The biggest spike in activity occurred at 11:19 P.M. ET, as the major networks and news organizations called the election for President Barack Obama and the number of tweets hit 327,452 per minute.

Another social media milestone was passed with President Obama tweeted his thanks to followers before taking the stage to deliver the traditional acceptance speech.

The second highest spike in activity was 85,273 tweets per minute (TPM) at 11:12 p.m. ET, when the Iowa presidential race was called. The third highest level was 69,031 TPM at 9:33 p.m. ET, when the Pennsylvania and Wisconsin presidential races were called, followed by 65,106 TPM at 8:03 p.m. ET, with the AP called a number of races, according to Sharp's blog.