Article Lead Image

Truth, change, and Beyonce: Facebook’s top inauguration trends

Facebook has released a list of the words, phrases and people that saw a huge spike in mentions during President Obama's second inauguration Monday. Not surprisingly, Beyonce is on it.

 

Jordan Valinsky

Internet Culture

Posted on Jan 22, 2013   Updated on Jun 2, 2021, 3:02 am CDT

Here’s a fact that Beyonce can’t imitate: Mentions of the singer’s name surged 43,000 percent higher than normal on Facebook during Monday’s second inauguration of Pres. Barack Obama.

According to stats released by Facebook, words relating to the inauguration, like “parade” and “America,” saw huge spikes at various points during the ceremony. Kelly Clarkson’s name was discussed 5,000 percent above normal during her performance, the word inauguration rose 4,600 percent at 11:40am ET, and the word oath zoomed up 4,500 percent at 11:50am.

Other words discussed more than normal were “America” (up 1,100 percent), “debate” (jumped 700 percent), and “history” (increased 500 percent). Michelle Obama’s name inched up 1,600 percent at 11:15am.

Facebook also released a list of top-trending terms broken down by time. At 10:00am, “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” was the most trending phrase, followed by “Happy MLK” and “a dream,” a reference to his famous 1963 speech.

At 1:00pm, shortly after the president spoke, “Our President,” “Obama,” and “Inauguration” all trended. Two hours later, the phrase “President Obama” was tops, followed by the words “country,” “America,” and “speech.” During the 6:00pm hour, “change,” “truth,” “color,” and “speech” trended.

Facebook’s report comes a day after Twitter released its findings that more than 1.1 million inauguration-related tweets were recorded. At the ceremony’s height, when Obama was being sworn in, tweets were flying at the rate of 18,712 per minute.

Sadly, supermodel Chrissy Teigen’s name didn’t make the list, despite her Twitter photos from inside various inauguration events.

Photo via Barack Obama/Facebook

Share this article
*First Published: Jan 22, 2013, 4:16 pm CST