Millions of viewers tuned in to yesterday's Inauguration Day festivities on television or made the trek to Washington, D.C. to be there in person; however, many millions more shared in the celebration virtually through a CNN and Facebook streaming partnership. The partnership enabled users to update their Facebook statuses directly from the CNN live streaming video feed, and its results were positively viral.
According to Mashable, Facebook averaged over 4,000 status updates per hour on Tuesday morning. As President Obama gave his inaugural speech, that number skyrocketed to 8,500 updates per minute.
"We've never reached levels like this before," a spokesman from Facebook told CNN.com. "Even just yesterday, we had more users online than we've ever had before, more new users than we've ever had before."
Mashable also reports that as of 11:45 AM, CNN had served 13.9 million live video streams globally since 6 AM. That figure shatters its all-time total daily streaming record of 5.3 million live streams, set on Election Day.
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Trend Themes
1. Virtual Event Partnerships - The successful partnership between CNN and Facebook highlights the potential for virtual collaboration between media and social media to facilitate experiential marketing and event management.
2. Real-time Social Media Updates - The record-breaking number of status updates on Facebook during the Inauguration ceremony speaks to the demand for live, real-time social media interaction during major events, presenting opportunities for social media monitoring and engagement services.
3. Global Live Streaming - The global audience for the CNN and Facebook live streaming partnership indicates a growing demand for real-time, global access to live events, suggesting potential for expanding global live streaming services in industries such as sports and entertainment.
Industry Implications
1. Media - Media companies can leverage real-time social media updates and virtual event partnerships to increase audience engagement and reach, and create new marketing opportunities.
2. Event Management - Event management companies can capitalize on the demand for virtual event partnerships to expand their reach and provide remote experiences for large-scale events such as conferences and concerts.
3. Live Streaming - The trend towards real-time, global live streaming presents opportunities for industries such as sports, entertainment, and news media to expand their audience reach and engagement through innovative live streaming services.