Opportunistic social media moments happen everyday… but when they happen during the biggest football game of the year, social media history is made.

For reasons not known just yet, a massive power outage meant 35 minutes of near-darkness at the New Orleans Superdome during the epic showdown between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers.

Social media on the other hand, immediately lit up and gave brands that reacted quickly the opportunity to show-off their super social media prowess to the world.

• Oreo Cookie (@oreo) immediately tweeted: “Power out? No problem,” linking to an image stating: “You can still dunk in the dark.”

• Tide (@tide) told fans, “We can’t get your #blackout, but we can get your stains out. #SuperBowl #TidePower”

• Audi (@audi) took a jab at competitor Mercedes-Benz (as in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome) tweeting, “Sending some LEDs to the @MBUSA Superdome right now…”

• And, Calvin Klein (@calvinklein) took the opportunity to use Vine, tweeting a video of a male model, “Since the lights are still out… http://vine.co/v/b1iiiiUz5uq #SB47”

Being nimble is one of the keys to a good social media program. Whether it is Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or one of the many other social networks out there, the brands that are the most successful are those that work in real-time and take note of what their fans are saying.

According to the official Twitter blog, the outage generated 231,000 Tweets per minute, making it the most talked about moment of the game.  Other notable moments included the 108-yard kickoff return for Ravens TD by Jones for 185,000 Tweets per minute, when the clock expired and the Ravens won for 183,000 Tweets per minute and when Jones caught the 56 yard pass for Ravens TD at the end of 2nd quarter for 168,000 Tweets per minute.

What was your favorite social media moment of the big game?

by Katie Foley.  As the PR Account Supervisor at lotus823, Katie manages the agency’s integrated marketing and PR initiatives for a variety of lifestyle, consumer electronic and music industry clients. Katie offers support to her clients through media relations, strategic planning, brand and reputation management, social media strategy, messaging and materials development and event/tradeshow coordination. Read other posts by Katie Foley.

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