Victory message and photo breaks Twitter record

A second term and a Twitter record — with much to celebrate, a picture of an intimate embrace with his wife Michelle has become US President Barack Obama’s most popular tweet ever with over half a million retweets and counting.

Just moments after his dream of a second term was realised, the president shared the celebratory tweet, accompanied by the words ‘Four more years’, with his 22.5m followers, leading to speculation it could be the most shared tweet in the history of Twitter.

Prior to this, Obama sent out words of thanks via the social networking site to those who voted for him, in what had to have been one of the first things he did on realising the election’s outcome.

It is appropriate the president took to Twitter so soon after his and Mitt Romney’s fates were sealed, as the website has been heavily utilised in both candidates’ campaigns.

A seismic shift in political debate and conversation was clearly marked as Twitter registered 31m tweets — up from 1.8m tweets on election day in 2008.

Obama’s Twitter feed was active with advice to voters, with tweets including: “If you’re in line when the polls close, stay in line to vote. It could help make the difference.”

Tweets were also aimed at specific states, such as this one: “Nevada, pass it on: Polls close at 7pm PT. You can vote as long as you’re in line before then. #StayInLine.”

Romney’s Twitter feed included a similar series of tweets yesterday, as the Republicans ensured their campaign used every resource available.

It was not just the candidates and their campaigners tweeting — with Twitter registering 31m tweets, a significant audience of people expressing their personal opinions was to be reached.

Twitter surged, hitting a peak of 327,452 tweets per minute.

Familiar faces took to their Twitter accounts to send their congratulations to Obama with tweets from British prime minister David Cameron and Australian leader Julia Gillard. Cameron tweeted: “Warm congratulations to my friend @BarackObama. Look forward to continuing to work together.”

Gillard tweeted: “My sincere congratulations to President @BarackObama on your re-election! JG”

Celebrities also chose Twitter to pass on their best wishes to Obama as well as expressing their excitement at his re-election.

Singer Rihanna tweeted: “Put one in da air for the Prez!!!! Our dear Obama!”

Rapper Sean Combs, also known as P Diddy, posted a photograph of himself with Obama, and a caption expressing his delight: “Big O & I in 2004 when I predicted that he would be the first black President. The 2nd time around feels even better.”