Jacko dead… really?
2009 July 2
The death of Michael Jackson has provided further evidence for the power of the internet in general and of social media in particular. Here are some statistics courtesy of Clean Cut Media.
- Web Usage: Jumped to 4.2 million global visitors per MINUTE. Normal is around 2 million.
- Web Search: More than 50% of top 100 searches were related to Michael Jackson
- Mobile Search: Saw the largest spike ever with 5 of 20 searches being about Michael Jackson
- Yahoo: Single day record of 16.4 million visitors
- CNN: Significantly slowed as they saw 20 million page views and saw traffic jump 5x normal levels within the first hour after the news broke.
- AIM: Went down for 40 minutes
- iTunes: 8 of the top 10 selling albums for download were from Michael Jackson, 8 of the top 10 music videos were also Michael Jackson related. 5 of the top 10 songs.
- Amazon: 10 of the top 25 albums for download were Michael Jackson.
- Amazon: For all CD sales, Jackson held 17 of the top 20 spots including all top 10 slots.
- Youtube: “Thriller Video” currently has 43.5 million views and 185,000 comments.
- Youtube: Fans are uploading videos in droves in memory of Michael Jackson
- Twitter: 5,000 tweets per minute
- Twitter: 23% of all tweets dedicated to the star.
- Twitter: 9 out of 10 popular topics were about Michael Jackson.
- Twitter: Celebrities expresses sorrows while followed by millions on Twitter.
- Facebook: Groups formed to organize vigils and celebration of Jackson
- Domains: Nearly 4,000 domain names related to Michael Jackson registered on Go Daddy within the first day
Jackson’s demise has also triggered a whole range of morbid jokes, most unrepeatable but worth searching on Google if you’re not offended by the tasteless… my favourites from repeatable list are
‘Don’t blame it on the sunshine, don’t blame it on the moonlight, don’t blame it on the good times, blame it on the cardiac arrest’.
When Farrah Fawcett arrived at heaven, God granted her one wish. She wished for all the children to be safe… so God killed Michael Jackson.
I’m a bit concerned about the Jacko jokes in the “Jacko dead… really?” article. I think it’s one thing to text these jokes to your friends, but find it a bit inappropriate to see them on my employer’s website. Was he a paedophile? We don’t know.
I think Helen makes a good point here. I found the start of this post quite interesting – the slightly hysterical rush for information, videos and music was quite weird and worth analysing. I just thought lapsing into jokes at the end undermined this. I had already heard several on the way to work anyway but I don’t know that any of us needed them at work?!
Let’s hope the Jackson family don’t read the blog and decide to sue HCC…