It didn't take long for the news of Mitt Romney's VP pick to spread on Twitter, especially because that's where the buzz originally started.
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Online chatter started to heat up at 11:06 P.M. ET on Friday night when Romney's communication director Gail Gitcho sent a tweet that Romney would announce his VP pick the next day. An hour later, NBC News stepped in with a tweet indicating that Paul would be the nominee.
Although buzz continued throughout the night, it wasn't until 9:29 A.M. ET on Saturday when Ryan took the stage at a rally aboard the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, Virginia that the conversation hit its peak -- about 3,749 tweets were sent each minute, according to Twitter data.
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Following the news, a new @PaulRyanVP account gained about 60,000 followers on Twitter in the first eight hours after it launched. His office account now boasts about 175,000 followers.
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@mittromney will announce his VP pick tomorrow in Norfolk. Download the VP app to be the first to know. mi.tt/Mitt-VP#Mitt2012— Gail Gitcho (@ggitcho) August 11, 2012
NBC News confirms: Mitt Romney will announce his VP selection Saturday at 9am in Norfolk, Va.
@nbcpolitics#Decision2012— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 11, 2012
Twitter -- which measured conversation and user attitude surrounding potential candidates in the months leading up the announcement -- said in a blog post there had been "mounting support" for Ryan, indicating that he was a true front-runner.
"With an average Twindex of 33 for the week of April 29, Ryan trailed other rumored candidates, including @MarcoRubio, @RobPortman, and @TimPawlenty," Twitter said. "By this week, Ryan was leading the others with an average Twindex of 63."
Scores below 50 indicate a more negative attitude about a candidate.
"Both Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden tend to perform better in the Index than the candidates at the top of the ticket," Twitter said. "But while President Obama has generally scored more positively than Governor Romney over the past six weeks, Ryan has most recently generated more positive sentiment than Biden."
Although it was promised that supporters with Mitt's VP App would be the first to officially know who would be the running mate, a notification was made at 7:07 A.M. ET on Saturday, hours after the news had circulated on Twitter.
Image via @RepPaulRyan
This story originally published on Mashable here.