Election Day was a reminder of Twitter’s influence in media and the distribution of information. While the company is a constant target of Wall Street disparagement for its relatively paltry 317 million monthly users, the site was a go-to for conversation and breaking news about voting activity, malfunctions and results — with the not-so-periodic joke thrown in. By 10 p.m., 40 million posts had been sent about the election, exceeding the 31 million sent on Election Day 2012.

“For all of its flaws and the badness of the product itself, this election has proven Twitter is vital,” said Ben Thompson, the founder of Stratechery, a technology industry analysis site. “The immediacy and speed is unmatched by any other network.”

Twitter’s reach on Election Day was particularly striking in the number of posts embedded outside of the service and into news sites like The New York Times, as well as entertainment-focused sites like TMZ and Perez Hilton. Even other social networks, like Facebook, reaped the benefit of news breaking on Twitter. At 5 p.m. Tuesday, one of the most talked-about topics on Facebook in the United States was a photo on Twitter from Mr. Trump’s son Eric of the vote he cast for his father. (The photo has since been deleted.)

Twitter also remained at the social media center of this election because of the fondness that the Republican presidential candidate exhibited for the service. Mr. Trump’s use of Twitter, including firing off posts at odd hours in the morning, made the service a must-read. In recent days, The New York Times reported that Mr. Trump’s aides had had to wrest his Twitter account away from him.

Yet for how much the presidential campaign has played out on Twitter, the company, based in San Francisco, does not seem to have been able to capitalize on the attention. Twitter is struggling financially and recently explored selling itself. When no credible suitors materialized, the company last month said it would cut about 9 percent of its work force and closed some services, such as the video app Vine.