#WebWeds: Social Media and Super Bowl LI
Note: This was featured as part of our Web Wednesday segment on Charleston’s 105.5 The Bridge with Box in the Morning. You can catch us every Wednesday morning at 8:20 am ET for your dose of social media & digital marketing news. You can listen to the segment below:[audio mp3="http://themodernconnection.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/020817-WW.mp3"][/audio]Super Bowl Sunday was this past Sunday, and boy was it a game. It was the first Super Bowl game ever to go into overtime, and it was the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, with the Patriots coming back from a 28-3 deficit to win 34-28. And anyone who was rooting for the Falcons suffered a pretty big heartbreak at the end of the game.And even though this game may have made sports history, the excitement didn’t quite translate into ratings and social media engagement. This year, 64 million people posted 240 million interactions on Facebook during the Super Bowl. This was an increase from 2016, but didn’t quite beat out 2015’s record-breaking 65 million people posting 265 million interactions. Similarly, over 27.6 million tweets were posted about #SB51 during the event (more than 2016’s 27 million), but not more than 2015’s record-breaking 28.4 million tweets.Why was this? It certainly couldn’t have been because the game wasn’t interesting (as was widely speculated last year). Most experts are attributing this to the fact that less people are watching.As we mentioned earlier, television ratings are also decreasing, but the largest reason for this is the way that people are consuming media. Instead of TV-only, web users are taking to their computers, tablets, and smartphones to consume media. You can watch live sports on Twitter, you can check the scores of your favorite teams on Facebook’s sports center, and you can find video updates on YouTube and Snapchat. The NFL has recognized this and smartly increased its focus on social networks in their strategy.This year’s biggest social media moments? The Patriots’ comeback, Lady Gaga’s halftime performance, and the Patriots’ 2-point conversion that tied the game with less than a minute on the board.
