Mark Esterhuysen’s now infamous late night F-word rampage on Talk Radio 702 has revealed some interesting statistics where media and social media is concerned. His rant went viral, and brand and reputation research company, Ornico, were on hand firstly to record, and then release, the bulletin via the inter-webs. The company records material “as a matter of course” through its news and editorial tracking service.
“What these numbers clearly show us is the viral effect of news that grabs people’s imagination and which becomes an online talking point,” says Oresti Patricios, CEO of Ornico. “The recording was released via Twitter and in just six days [up to October 3] has chalked up some impressive numbers which speaks eloquently to Twitter’s ability to lead news cycles.
“The short form social media has become the world’s top agenda setting social media, largely because Twitter is so heavily populated by editors, journalists, news and other media organisations.”
Patricios says that Twitter is an opinion forming media, and as such has become a social media barometer. “Twitter very quickly indicates what kind of coverage and the degree of coverage that issues will get. If it’s hot on twitter and its newsworthy you can bet that people will be writing about it, reporting on it and using it in their news analysis and opinions.”
These are just a few of the statistics it chalked up:
– 128 507 – The number of page views the original link to https://www.twitvid.com/WSSUO Esterhuysen’s F-bomb achieved in six days.
– 1 904 – The number of people who retweeted the original link that was posted at https://www.twitvid.com/WSSUO in six days.
– 9 – The number of times the recording was reposted on YouTube. 67338 – The combined number of views that Esterhuysen’s F-bomb recording got on YouTube in just six days.
– 1 – The current number of remixes that have been made mashing up the F-bomb track.
– 1 – The number of parodies that have been made about Esterhuysen’s on air F-bomb.
– 212 – The number of online pieces of media coverage found when searching for the term “mark esterhuysen” on Google News. Local media who covered the issue included Mail & Guardian, Independent Online, TimesLIVE, Eyewitness News, Sunday World and Sowetan. Thanks to Reuters the news went international and was quickly picked up by the likes of The Asian Age, The West Australian, UK’s Mail Online, the New Zealand Herald, Mirror.co.uk, Nehanda Radio in Zimbabwe, and NewsOne in the US.
– 34 800 – The number of search results Google returns for the phrase “mark esterhuysen”.
– 4 199 – The current number of followers Mark Esterhuysen has on Twitter.
