The Oscars, On Twitter: Over 1.2 Million Tweets, 388K Users Tweeting

Twitter has changed the way we watch television. Say what you will about the 83rd Annual Oscars (and thus far the consensus is “meh”), you’ve probably already said it on Twitter.  Mass Relevance and TweetReach, a Twitter analytics service with commercial access to the Twitter API, have teamed up to make a data map of yesterday’s mass conversation.

Over 20 Oscar-related terms like “Oscars,” “#Oscars,” “Academy” (but no specific names of celebrities or movies) were tracked between the hours of 5:30 and 8:45 PST during the show’s live airing. Total damage? 1,269,970 tweets, 1,663,458,778 potential impressions, and 388,717 users tweeting.

http://twitter.com/#!/TheOnion/status/42043221626466304

The honor of most retweeted tweet of the night went to The Onion with the above zinger (sorry @parislemon). And the highest tweet peak was shortly after the internet friendly Auto-Tune montage at 7:20 pm PST, clocking in 11,780.

And while that 1.6 billion impressions number may seem high, TweetReach CEO Jenn Davis tells me that the volume was actually lower than she expected, “We were prepared for big spikes, and we just didn’t see those.” Davis told me that the event paled in comparison to the Super Bowl and The Grammy, where TweetReach saw 17,000 tweets in a single minute. In contrast, the spikes topped out at 12,000 at the Oscars.

Davis guesses that this is because the movie industry has not yet found its Twitter groove, “All of the celebrities that generate a lot of the converasation on Twitter are musicians like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, so I don’t know if [The Oscars] appeals to a Twitter audience in the same way The Grammys or The Superbowl does. “

Update: Here are the top ten retweets, in order of frequency (#s below each tweet).

How rude — not a single character from Toy Story 3 bothered to show up. #oscars

— The Onion (@TheOnion) February 28, 2011

2963

Watching the Oscars. Not crazy about the womb Natalie Portman's baby chose to wear.

— Conan O'Brien (@ConanOBrien) February 28, 2011

1637

Oscars just announced, Kirk Douglas hosting show next year.

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) February 28, 2011

1314

good luck to my friend Hailee Steinfeld tonight on the #oscars . young people going for theirs! also want Christian Bale to win. #TheFighter

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) February 28, 2011

1133

Stay tuned for the official Republican rebuttal to the #Oscars shortly after the show

— The Onion (@TheOnion) February 28, 2011

1091

Just remember: every star you see, every film you applaud, everything you honor at the #Oscars, is a proud part of a # UNION #Wisconsin

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) February 28, 2011

993

"Three years after a financial crisis caused by massive fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail." #Oscars

— Joseph Gordon-Levitt (@hitRECordJoe) February 28, 2011

965

http://twitter.com/keisertroll/statuses/42052736048562177
910

So when presenters are reading the winners at the #oscars, this is what the card inside the envelope looks like: http://yfrog.com/h86e36j

— Ryan Seacrest (@RyanSeacrest) February 27, 2011

891

"Tiny Ball of Light." Hahaha. Who knew Ron and Hermione could sing? Brilliant. #Oscars

— Harry Potter (@harrypotter) February 28, 2011

882

Twitter has also posted their own take on The Oscars, here.
Thanks: TweetReach