Social Media

How are the Super Bowl and social media connected? Well, for starters, Super Bowl XLVI broke the second and third place records for tweets per second. The Giants vs. Patriots game culminated with 12,233 tweets per second while half-time guest Madonna spurred 10,245 tweets per second.  This year, social media and the Super Bowl had a greater relationship then ever before. Indianapolis,  Super Bowl XLVI’s interactive host city, built the Super Bowl’s first ever social media command center. For over a week leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, this 2,800 square foot command center monitored fan conversations in the digital space across Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. This station was manned by strategists, IT specialists, and analysts who were acting as the go to source of information for the 150,000+ fans who will be in Indianapolis for the game.

This is the first time a social media command center has been built for an event of this magnitude. Raidious, an interactive marketing company local to Indianapolis was behind the management of the massive Social Media HQ. Having already outgrown their second office in 18 months, Raidious plans to continue working out of the command center even after the conclusion of the Super Bowl. The command center required over 150 miles of ethernet cable and 150 square feet of networked screen space to run the massive undertaking.

The team working 15-hours a day was comprised of Raidious’s 16 employees and students from local universities. Approximately 20 people were working in the command center at any given time tweeting helpful tips to fans and visitors like where to find parking, local attractions to check out and safety information in the event of an emergency. The social media command center used keyword monitoring as its strategy to assist visitors, so someone could simply tweet, “I hate parking” and it would be picked up by a worker in the command center.

Researchers from Ball State University’s Center for Media Design were studying the operation and analyzing its strengths and weaknesses. They intend to make their collected data accessible to other cities that are slated to host major events in the future. Imagine this possibilities in using this level of social media connection for every event from major awards shows to the Olympics.  “Social media is just how people interact now,” noted Raidious’s CEO Taulbee Jackson. “We felt it was critical to have some horsepower behind that aspect of the Super Bowl here, versus what you might have seen from other Super Bowls.”

Check out this illustration from Google Think Insights that draws upon role social media played in the Super Bowl XLVI. Way to go G Men.