This past Sunday, the Oscars blew up Twitter. Yes, Ellen DeGeneres broke Twitter. Why is this significant? Because in only an hour the selfie filled with who is who in Hollywood was retweeted 1 million times.
Take a look at the retweets 24 hours later… 3 million!
By Monday afternoon, it had been retweeted some 2.8 million times, shattering the previous record of 810,000 retweets for the photo of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hugging after the 2012 election. Twitter was humming at 254,644 tweets per minute after DeGeneres’ request, and the company said the crush disrupted service for 20 minutes.
So, what makes this tweet so retweetable?
I took screenshots of the selfie being made and posted the moment on Instagram. I knew that this selfie would make history and it was worth documenting how it came to be.
The audience is sitting at home–with their devices in hand–And, Ellen is hosting the show and asks you, the audience, to participate–LIVE–REAL TIME.
No longer are the days where we would see this picture the day after in a newspaper. We saw the picture taken, we saw the picture tweeted and we were able to participate in the ceremony instantaneously.
Another important aspect to this famous selfie is that it’s what WE do. We take selfies of ourselves and our friends. And–IF you were at the Oscars, you would WANT to take a selfie with famous people. This picture will be a classic. Talk about a director’s dream cast all in one selfie picture.
We are addicted to sharing our lives. Ellen created that atmosphere at the Oscars. Actually, a lot of people were Tweeting how slow and boring the show was. Then the selfie happened, then Ellen had pizza delivered…then the Oscars felt as if Ellen was hosting a big Oscar party for friends at her house. But, most of all, social media created a conversation with people all around the country–even the world.
And, then this happened–a gift to the Twitter Gods… and to Slate.com
John Travolta tried to introduce Idina Menzel. Oh, and by the way, it sounded NOTHING like Idina Menzel– He called her Adele Dazeem… because Idnia looks and sounds just like Adele.
Social media took it in their hands to make sure John Travolta knew the correct pronunciation of Idina’s name by the end of the her performance. By morning, Slate.com created a name generator where you could input your name to see how Travolta would pronounce it.
Here is the name generator Slate posted to Travoltify your name.
According to the New York Times, this quick game on Slate was the most clicked on article on the news site in their 18-year history.
News organizations are changing their formats in the digital age to connect with more readers, with quizzes and games having become popular offerings that audiences find hard to resist.
There is a new way to keep an audience interested in news and to even watch the Oscars–it looks like games, quizzes and selfies are the new way engage an audience to learn more about the world they live in.
