Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's Wednesday night Republican National Convention speech was a powerful conversation driver on Twitter. It pushed overall tweets about the RNC to more than two million as he took the stage -- six times the number of tweets sent during both 2008 conventions combined.
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Ryan also topped the RNC tweets-per-minute record set the previous night by Ann Romney, with 6,669 tweets-per-minute as he left the stage to Ann's 6,195 at the end of her Tuesday speech.
According to Twitter, the shorter, punchier and more "snackable" quotes from Ryan's speech drove the conversation. The most tweeted-about moments during Ryan's speech generally matched the highest-energy moments at the Republican National Convention itself.
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This line, referencing the differences between Ryan's Catholic religion and the Mormon faith of Mitt Romney, netted 6,470 tweets-per-minute:
Ryan: Mitt and I also go to different kinds of churches but best kind of preaching is done by example
#decision2012#NBCPolitics— Alex Moe (@AlexNBCNews) August 30, 2012
This line about government spending got a hair under 6,000 tweets:
"We need to stop spending money we don't have." -
@paulryanvp#gop2012— Mashable US & World (@mashusworld) August 30, 2012
During Ryan's speech, the Romney campaign's social media team livetweeted the most effective lines from his official account, while using other campaign accounts in a support role:
After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is
@mittromney.#WeCanChangeIt— Paul Ryan (@PaulRyanVP) August 30, 2012
PHOTO:
#WeCanChangeIt#gop2012#tcot twitter.com/MittRomney/sta…— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) August 30, 2012
Meanwhile, Democrats used Twitter for live counter-messaging:
FACT: Ryan opposed the deficit reduction deal because it would help President Obama's re-election chances. OFA.BO/d7brJS
— TruthTeam2012 (@truthteam2012) August 30, 2012
Myth of Paul Ryan is that he's a man of ideas. Only one he had tonight was taking health care away from millions of Americans.
#emptysuit— Brad Woodhouse (@woodhouseb) August 30, 2012
Condoleezza Rice's speech was also very warmly received by the crowd and generated plenty of buzz on Twitter, sparking 3,961 tweets-per-minute. Her breakout line was construed by some observers as a hint that she's interested in running for president come 2016:
"She could be President of the United States if she wanted to be...." is the line that lit up
#gop2012— Mashable US & World (@mashusworld) August 30, 2012
And the whole arena is on its feet for
@condoleezzarice#gop2012— Mashable US & World (@mashusworld) August 30, 2012
Have you been following the Republican National Convention using Twitter?
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This story originally published on Mashable here.