A total of 3.5 million tweets were sent during Thursday night's vice presidential debate, according to Twitter. That's about a third of the 10.3-million mark the first presidential debate of the 2012 election hit last week.
Tweets-per-minute peaked at 58,275 just after Joe Biden's "Oh, now you're Jack Kennedy?" quip. The second most-tweeted moment was Biden's comment on Afghanistan at 54,944 tweets-per-minute, followed by Ryan's line about the Democrats getting "caught with their hand in the cookie jar" on Medicare.
Which candidate had the most overall online chatter? According to social media analysis firm Attention, powered by Tracx, Ryan was leading conversations across social networks with 56% of the conversation; Joe Biden trailed at 44% (Attention's analysts pointed out this may have been skewed by the instant-memeification of Ryan's workout photo shoot). After the debate, Biden moved ahead, taking up 68% of the conversation, while Ryan trailed at 32%.
The Obama campaign made quick Twitter ad purchases on hashtag-friendly moments, including #Malarky and "Jack Kennedy." Biden's "malarky" comment hit 31,008 tweets-per-minute.
The campaigns (and reporters) also used Twitter to share behind-the-scenes photos of the candidates and their running mates:
Great pep talk from one of my most trusted advisors. twitter.com/PaulRyanVP/sta…— Paul Ryan (@PaulRyanVP) October 11, 2012
Cool photo from earlier: Gov, @robportman, @speakerboehner and @govmikehuckabee call @paulryanvp to wish him luck. twitter.com/dgjackson/stat…— Mitt's Body Man (@dgjackson) October 12, 2012
PHOTO: @mittromney debate contest winner Christine watches the debate w/ the Gov over pizza #RomneyRyan2012 #tcot twitter.com/ZacMoffatt/sta…— Zac Moffatt (@ZacMoffatt) October 12, 2012
President Obama watched the VP Debate on CNN on board Air Force One. See this WH Photo. #CNNDebate twitter.com/SamFeistCNN/st…— Sam Feist (@SamFeistCNN) October 12, 2012
Beau Biden, Joe Biden's son, wished his father good luck via Twitter:
So proud of my dad, @joebiden. -BB #vpdebate— Beau Biden (@BeauBiden) October 12, 2012
And, as always, the debate spawned plenty of great parody accounts:
lolollllolll— Laughing Joe Biden (@LaughinJoeBiden) October 12, 2012
Does anyone know of any 24 hour gyms located within sprinting distance of Centre College?— Paul Ryan's Bicep (@PaulRyansBicep) October 11, 2012