The social media numbers for the Republican National Convention are in, and they're impressive: more than 4 million tweets with a peak of 14,743 tweets per minute, 2.5 million-plus YouTube views and 300,000 hours of streaming video viewed in a three-day period with an average view time of more than 30 minutes.
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Given how ubiquitous social media has become since the last election in 2008, it's not surprising that this year's conventions are doing well online -- but these numbers certainly set a high bar for the Democratic National Convention, beginning Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"I think our [digital] strategy was right on, and it sets the bar for how future conventions and events should be run," said James Davis, communications director for the 2012 Republican National Convention.
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The strategy involved running a "Convention Without Walls" by using social media, particularly YouTube, to bring the event to the rest of the country and vice-versa. To accomplish that goal, Davis's team used a wide array of platforms: Google+ Hangouts, Skype, Twitter, Facebook and others, all connected to one another and to the events on the ground in Tampa, Florida.
"We were about getting out the message about what was going on at the convention and engaging people with the convention," he added.
Zac Moffatt, Mitt Romney's digital director, was also proud of the social media efforts of the convention.
"I really think that this convention is achieving what it set out to do, which is provide a convention without walls," he said during a Wednesday interview.
After the convention, Twitter noted that Barack Obama's tweeted response to Clint Eastwood's empty-chair routine was the most retweeted tweet of the RNC. When asked if that meant anything in the long run, Davis shrugged it off.
"I'm glad he was watching," he said, jokingly. "I wonder if he was watching our livestream."
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This story originally published on Mashable here.