IBM, USC use Twitter to pick favorite quarterback in Super Bowl
Twitter has gone through a revolution of its own in the last year, proving to be adept at tracking political climates as well as sparking mass demonstrations worldwide.
Now it is being put to the test to determine who is America's favorite quarterback heading into the Super Bowl this Sunday.
IBM and the University of Southern California Annenberg Innovation Lab (AIL) together conducted a social media analysis, taking a pulse on the microblogging site to determine the fans's sentimental favorite quarterback in the NFL championship game: New England Patriots QB Tom Brady or New York Giants QB Eli Manning.
The total sample size was 600,000 Tweets regarding the Super Bowl.
According to the survey, Americans might be divided when it comes to picking a favorite as Brady had a 65 percent positive sentiment rating while Manning had a 62 percent positive rating.
Researchers actually labeled this as an "upset" because "many would assume that Brady should be far ahead given his lofty status as an elite QB for many years and three championship rings."
The idea behind the survey is to identify how influential Twitter and social media users can be when it comes to influencing the NFL, marketing departments, and more for determining a brand presence.
Even though 100 million viewers are expected to tune into the Super Bowl, the report points out that not only does Twitter see approximately 200 million Tweets each day, but there are also more than 800 million people subscribed to Facebook. With populations like that, even if everyone loves to watch the Super Bowl commercials during the game, social media might be the most powerful and effective way to get a product known and sold.
Related: