As January 20, 2009 marked a historical moment for the United States of America with the swearing in of the 44th President, Barack Obama, it also marked a historical moment in social media with the partnership that CNN and social platform, Facebook, made to create, what is seen by many, as the first ever ‘social inauguration.’  While an estimated 2 million people flocked to Washington D.C. to see the inauguration live, others chose to watch the inauguration on the internet because they were either working, or because they would rather interact with their online friends.  This is the first time ever that a Presidential Inauguration, when coupled with social media, performed so well.

So there are a few questions one might ask themselves.  Were the results of the partnership that phenomenal? Was this partnership really that big of a deal?  Does social media really have a place among events such as the Presidential Inauguration?  The answer to these questions are yes, yes and yes! The results and turnout that Facebook saw through this partnership with CNN Live was astonishing; over one million people had signed up for the opportunity to update their status’ via the CNN Live page.  It was reported that there were 4,000 Facebook users updating their status per minute during the broadcast, and that there were 3,000 people commenting on CNN’s page per minute.  It was also reported that there were over 1,000 comments on President’s Barack Obama’s wall that morning alone.  The 44th Presidential Inauguration also captivated a larger audience than the 2008 Superbowl (which had a record high of 94.5 million viewers! – good luck topping that audience Superbowl XLIII).  Even the New York Times took advantage of the opportunity to run video engagement ads on Facebook that would connect users to the New York Times page and engage them to participate in answering a question about what they think that Barack Obama should address first as President.

The CNN and Facebook partnership gave the Facebook community the opportunity to watch the inaugural events while connecting with their online friends through status updates on CNN.com Live.  Updating your Facebook status was a synch via CNN Live. I personally logged into Facebook from the CNN Live page and updated my status; the only thing that was notably different was at the end of my status, it read ‘via CNN.com Live.’  I also noticed that many of my Facebook friends had taken the same approach to updating their status.  The unfortunate event that took place that afternoon, Senator Ted Kennedy’s collapse as a result of a seizure, also sparked rapid responses via CNN Live and Facebook Connect.  Users were responding to the event immediately after it took place and their concerning status updates, wishing him a speedy recovery, were posted in real-time. 
You may be asking yourself, what prompted this partnership between CNN and Facebook?  CNN reported that they thought of this partnership on Election Night, when Facebook users were updating their status’ to reflect their feelings about the results of the election.  The opportunities that social media presents in bringing together its users are endless.  CNN Live and Facebook did a wonderful job, and I for one, feel very lucky to have witnessed this historic moment in real-time.