March madness is one of my favorite events of the year. As a Big Ten alumni I always hope that my school will make it to the finals and I follow the games closely. It is also fun to see how these games drive social conversations online. Between rabid sports fans and passionate alumni, these games create lots of excitement and discussions!
While I have my personal favorites (hint: Michigan and Indiana), we used Visible Intelligence to take a look back at the second round leading to the Sweet Sixteen. We know who won in our basketball brackets, but what about the Twitter tournament? Who was mentioned most and who won the the social hearts and minds of basketball fans?
As you can see in the infographic below, created with ExactTarget, there were winners, losers, cinderella stories and underdogs.
Highlights:
- In the top two regions, Oregon and Michigan (Go Blue!) are always among the top schools when it comes to social media in college sports
- Duke and North Carolina are huge rivals with huge fanbases, so it’s no surprise that these two schools are popular on Twitter
- In the bottom half of the bracket, Gonzaga (the ultimate Cinderella and often fan-favorite) had the most mentions in the west region
- Marquette (who won on a buzzer-beater) had the most mentions overall
What happens on the court may not always reflect who wins on Twitter. Teams with large fan bases and active social media accounts did well. Games with high drama and exciting finishes had more mentions. Bring on the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight!
March Madness Round 2 Twitter winners
2012 Prediction: Not Done Talking About the Mayan Apocalypse Prophecy
Posted by Emma Hardman on January 30, 2012Ok, we have all heard it (you’ve heard it, right?). According to an ancient Mayan prophecy, the world will come to an end this year. Specifically, December 21, 2012- the winter solstice. In fact, although many of us in the northern hemisphere may hold the beginning of winter akin to the end of the world, the basis of the prophecy is shaky. The rumor, which has in equal parts delighted and terrified many as the year approached, is based on a partially damaged piece of rock that was most likely badly translated. In addition to this, December 21 is simply the last day in the Mayan long-count calendar. Just because the calendar ends is no reason to believe the world does, as we realize every January 1 when we blearily awake and realize we forgot to pick up a new calendar. Mayan scholars, scientists of all kinds- even NASA has pointed out flaws in the so-called prophecy (if you want an impressively in depth FAQ, check this out). But we at Visible® are not here to say who is in the right- we are here to crowdsource what everyone is saying!
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