Following game on social media half the fun
| Monday, Feb 06 2012 11:08 PM
Last Updated Monday, Feb 06 2012 11:09 PM
Super Bowl Sunday is not just an epic day for football fans, but for anyone tied into the social media grid. Aside from watching the championship game and the commercials, half the fun for me is reading commentary during the game on Facebook and Twitter.
Twitter hit an astounding 12,233 tweets per second at the end of the Giants vs. Patriots game and 10,245 tweets per second during Madonna's halftime show.
I was online during the game and following the #SuperBowl hashtag, and there was some pretty good stuff out there. Here's a look at the top tweets that made me laugh:
@sportspickle: "Pepsi should do an ad in which all of the Coca-Cola polar bears die due to climate change."
@clydetombaugh: "I hope aliens don't judge our film industry by the #Superbowl movie ads: The Avengers, G.I. Joe, John Carter, Battleship."
@piersmorgan: "So the Patriots just let a Giant score a touchdown he didn't want to score? And you Americans say cricket is complicated?"
@sportspickle: "Tim Tebow means well, but if God was truly merciful the Super Bowl pregame show would have ended about 9 days ago."
@azizansari: "Whoa someone just yelled "interception" and I thought they yelled "inception." That would make football way better. #TouchdownMrCobb"
@jeremysisto: "I like that Cee Lo was dressed like Andre the giant from the Princess Bride when they stormed the castle."
Lots of retweets on this, although I picked it up from @webjournalist: "I know Eastwood is trying to do a Dodge commercial here, but he could walk away with the Republican nomination right now."
And for you hockey fans:
@thatkevinsmith: "These guys can simply run out of bounds and the play just stops?!? Ain't no out of bounds in Hockey: it's all boards, corners and paybacks."
And though it was big, the volume of Sunday's tweets weren't enough to claim the No. 1 spot. That goes to Dec. 9, 2011 when anime movie "Castle in the Sky" aired in Japan. A whopping 25,088 tweets per second surfaced that day.
Crash and burn?
In other Super Bowl-related news, Web optimization firm Yottaa monitored advertisers' sites on Sunday and found three that we not equipped to handle all the traffic driven to them by their creative advertising.
The sites for Coca-Cola, Acura and the film "Act of Valor" crashed Sunday when they were overwhelmed by ad-driven traffic.
Kia's site had the most reliable performance of all the Super Bowl advertisers, according to Yottaa.
Facebook IPO
Last week social media megastar Facebook filed papers for an Initial Public Offering with the goal of raising $5 billion.
What does this mean for users?
The first answer is that it remains to be seen. As a publicly traded company, Facebook will likely be under pressure to turn a bigger profit. Does that mean user privacy will be compromised as the company sells information to advertisers? Possibly. But while that makes sense financially, it doesn't make sense from a customer relationship standpoint.
It took the company eight years to build a relationship with their 845 million active users, and drastic changes to privacy settings would destroy that very quickly.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg definitely has a fine line to walk now.
A few interesting notes that were revealed in the filing:
* According to Mashable.com, Zuckerberg's total earnings in 2011 were $1.49 million -- $700,000 of which was costs related to private plane use "chartered in connection with his comprehensive security program and on which family and friends flew during 2011."
* Facebook generates a "substantial majority" of money from its partnership with Zynga. A serious 12 percent -- $500 million -- of Facebook's $3.71 billion came from the gaming company.
* Facebook is required in its filing to note things that could kill the company. Included is the worry that the non-ad showing mobile platform will continue to grow; that governments world-wide will further restrict access to the site; losing its partnership with Zynga; existing class-action and patent lawsuits do not go its way; U.S. tax code reform; and the worry that it won't handle its growth effectively as the 3,000-employee company prepares to acquire other companies. They specifically mention losing key leaders such as Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Office Sheryl Sandberg.
It's all very interesting to read -- to me, anyway -- and will be even more interesting as the stock sale gets closer.
The number of shares the company plans to sell and the price will be revealed in the coming weeks. Analysts expect the sale to begin in May.
Jamie Butow is the community engagement coordinator at Bakersfield.com, and the mom of an active 7-year-old boy who is very upset about the Patriots loss on Sunday. Email her at JButow@bakersfield.com. Follow her on Facebook at Facebook.com/JamieButow2, Twitter @JamieButow, on Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. Seriously, she's not that hard to connect with.
