Tech giant Apple dominated our social media feeds this week with their latest product launch extravaganza, but a lot more has been churning in the news cycle. This week marks the 13th anniversary of 9/11, we've heard the non-guilty verdict in the highly intriguing Pistorius trial, and in the social media universe, DiGiorno made that greatest of faux pas, acting before thinking.
What did the people of the internet have to say about all of these stories? The Brandwatch data and analytics reveals all.
9/11 Anniversary
Facebook and Twitter were created years after September 11, 2001, but that doesn't change the fact that social media is the foremost forum to post mentions about what happened in New York City 13 years ago.
Remembering the events of 9/11 is at the forefront of the conversation online around the anniversary, which had garnered over 20,000 online mentions by mid-afternoon yesterday. This number might seem small compared to other trending topics, but we filter through online conversations in the Brandwatch Analytics platform to hone in on only the most relevant regarding a specific news story.
Most mentioned topics include: "13 years ago," "NeverForget911," "President Obama" and "New York City."
The top hashtags focus around the date itself (#911anniversary, #september11, #remember911) and the remembrance aspect of the anniversary (#neverforget911, #911neverforget, #wewillneverforget, #rip911).
Pistorius Trial
Many people are familiar with the name Oscar Pistorious. The Paralympics running star has been more infamous for shooting and killing his girlfriend on Valentine's Day 2013 than for his athletic prowess.
Pistorious has always denied it was murder and pleaded not guilty (he believed there to be an intruder in the bathroom where girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot). Yesterday, he was found not guilty of murder. It is yet to be decided if will be found guilty of manslaughter (known in South Africa as culpable homicide), the judge will deliver her verdict later today.
In the last 24 hours there have been nearly 8,000 mentions online about Pistorious, as news of the verdict was made public. Comparisons to the OJ Simpson trial and Simpson getting cleared of murder charges have infiltrated the conversation as well drawing attention to public figures getting off on serious crime charges.
In rather poor taste, the joke "he doesn't have a leg to stand on" has been circulating online nearly 200 times. While the death of an innocent woman by her paralympican boyfriend is no laughing matter, humor (though dark as it may be) is sometimes the first path of the social media news world.
Sentiment of the online mentions across Twitter, Facebook, news sites and more is 10% negative. That pesky 2% positive sentiment can be attributed to mostly snarky remarks online about how great his lawyers are and some folks saying they are "actually happy for Pistorious."
DiGiorno's Social Media Blunder
We all know social media is a fast-moving platform, and it's tempting to jump onto a hashtag bandwagon so as not to miss a potentially relevant trend for your brand.
But as we've seen with many brands and most recently, DiGiorno, blindly tweeting and creating a mini social campaign without thoroughly delving into a hashtag/topic can have severe brand reputation consequences.
According to data from Brandwatch, the domestic abuse hashtag #whyistayed as been mentioned in conjunction with DiGiorno in over 700 tweets and has had nearly 18.5 million impressions since DiGiorno's original errant tweet less than 48 hours ago.
That original tweet was subsequently deleted, and replaced four minutes later with an apology, which has done little to diffuse the backlash against DiGiorno's insensitive rush to social media, to hijack the hashtag for their own brand agenda.
Additional data:
We've seen over 4,500 online mentions of the DiGiorno and #whyistayed discussion
Interestingly, more than half of the social users discussing DiGiorno's hashtag fail are men (52%), despite the #whyIstayed hashtag predominantly being used by women
Mentions didn't spike until more than 14 hours after the original tweet, when the media started covering it (specifically Mashable)
The top two emotions associated with this discussion online are :-O (surprise) and ;) wink (shock and sarcasm toward the brand)
This week has had its fair share of serious news stories, but next week we'll also be looking at some lighter fare around some of the most beloved seasonal items of fall. Good, bad, serious or light, everyone takes to social to talk about everything and anything. We'll be tracking the stories that light up social and sharing Brandwatch insights.