2013 State of the Union

Each year the President’s State of the Union speech, and the opposition response that follows it, ignites a national conversation about a host of issues. Tonight’s #SOTU address and response drew more than 1.36 million Tweets.

If you watched the speech on TV, you could see how members of Congress and political dignitaries responded to the President’s remarks. On Twitter, the ebb and flow of Tweets per minute illustrates some reactions from the rest of us. The highest spikes in conversation occurred when President Obama discussed the following:

• Middle class opportunities & minimum wage; “ladders of opportunity”: 24,000 TPM
• Gun violence victims and need for legislation; “they deserve a vote”: 23,700 TPM
• Early childhood education; “make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind…Let’s give our kids that chance”: 19,000 TPM

During the GOP response delivered by Florida Senator Marco Rubio (@marcorubio), the peak in Twitter conversation came following his pause for a sip of water.  Sen. Rubio poked a bit of fun at himself with a Tweet of his own:

Sen. Rubio’s press secretary also shared a Vine offering a peek at what goes into setting up a live national address:

And as the official speech and counterpoint conclude, the Twitter conversation continued:

Posted by Adam Sharp (@AdamS)
Head of Government, News and Social Innovation