Happy Birthday, Madam Speaker: Twitter Celebrates Nancy Pelosi
It seems like no matter where we go (well, where we go virtually) people only can or want to talk about one thing: coronavirus. But as the global pandemic continues to unfold, not everyone is forgetting to celebrate the milestone. The phrase “Madam Speaker” has been trending on Twitter because the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, turns 80 years old. The Washington Post provides a profile that discusses Pelosi’s rise from a first term congresswoman at 47 who rose not just once but twice to be the only woman yet to serve as the head of the legislative branch of the US federal government as well as the highest ranking woman in the history of American politics (and just second in line for the presidency behind Vice Presidents Cheney, Biden, and now Pence).
Nancy Pelosi, the first woman and current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, celebrates her 80th birthday in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. Source: Wikipedia
With more than 19,000 mentions on Twitter, “Madam Speaker” has become a trend that recognizes the speaker’s personal milestone in the middle of the international pandemic. While other people might be celebrating their birthday by counting candles, Pelosi is busy counting votes as the House races to pass stimulus legislation that was unanimously passed in the Senate early this morning.
Social Studio can be helpful for finding themes that exist within the thousands of tributes posted to Twitter. In addition to looking at “top words” used in related posts, Social Studio allows you to download the 19,000 tweets in full which will allow you to personally analyze them in addition to the numerous tools that the system gives you (allowing you to separate out demographics such as the tweet’s identified nation of origin, age of the poster, gender, etc.).
The top words used in posts discussing “Madam Speaker.” Source: Social Studio
For a future project, consider looking at what is trending on Twitter and then download those tweets to identify themes, group identities (such as supporters, opponents), consider user sentiments, and more. There is a lot of information about culture that can be gleaned from Twitter trends. If you are not sure how to get started, contact the staff of the Adam Brown Social Media Command Center today!