The 2016 GOP Convention has had no shortage of drama.

We took a look at how the events of days one, two, three and four went down on social media.

Highs and lows

Overall we found 1.3 million mentions of the convention on the first day alone.

The first mention spike, around 4pm EST, wasn’t massively favorable. Taking a look at the top discussed terms in the conversation, “Never Trump” was prominent, while the word “chaos” was also generating a lot of mentions.

Chaos breaks out on GOP Convention floor over conscience vote on Donald Trump’s nomination: https://t.co/JQrIyGZxkR pic.twitter.com/LOdUgc5AXD — Slate (@Slate) July 18, 2016

Mentions peaked overall at around 10pm as the internet reacted to Melania Trump’s speech.

Attention quickly turned to how her speech was “remarkably similar” to one delivered by Michelle Obama in 2008.

Day two saw an incredible 1.5 million mentions of the convention.

The first mention spike occurred around 7pm ET, with the word “BREAKING” a key term amongst the mentions.

BREAKING NEWS: @realDonaldTrump has been formally nominated as the Republican presidential nominee. #RNCinCLEpic.twitter.com/DzOzQf8eww — Fox News (@FoxNews) July 19, 2016

The second significant spike occurred at 10pm, with many commenting on Donald Trump Jr’s provocative speech.

Donald Trump Jr. on father: “When we elect him…we’ll have made America great again, greater than ever before.” https://t.co/BeoM3fFkRX — ABC News (@ABC) July 20, 2016

Day three again saw a mention spike at 10pm, this time with Ted Cruz at the centre of the conversation.

Moving on to day four, the peak this time centred around Ivanka Trump’s speech. Donald Trump’s speech was the focal point of the 11pm spike afterwards. There were more than 400k mentions per hour during those two high points.

Comparing all four days, a pattern definitely emerged when it came to peaks in mentions online.

Over the whole four days we found 5.8 million mentions of the convention.

Topics of interest

Taking a look at the top mentioned words used overall for the first day, Mr Trump was front and center.

Meanwhile, Sherriff David Clarke’s “Blue Lives Matter” speech was made to rapturous applause at the convention and resulted in around 13k mentions on social media.

Wisconsin Sheriff David Clarke: “I would like to make something very clear: Blue Lives Matter.” #RNCinCLEhttps://t.co/CdUxjdzwQY — BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) July 19, 2016

#NeverTrump made a considerable splash, while Benghazi also became a much-discussed topic online.

Day 2 saw a number of big names take over the conversation, though it was Melania Trump’s Monday night speech that got the most attention.

The Republican nominee’s children as well as Ben Carson and Chris Christie were all key figures in the conversation.

Day three again saw big names at the forefront of the topic cloud.

Within the Ted Cruz conversation “boos” and “booed” were fairly prominent and he turned out to own the most tweeted account of the day.

Meanwhile, Mike Pence got a hefty load of mentions for his speech.

.@mike_pence was fantastic tonight. Will be a great V.P. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2016

Trump liked it so much he tried to kiss him.

Finally, day four saw Ted Cruz remain prominent in the conversation, while Ivanka Trump’s speech also had a huge impact.

Trump’s speech and formal acceptance of the Republican nomination clearly made a huge impression online.

Top mentioned figures

Hillary Clinton was one of the top mentioned and retweeted people in relation to the convention on Twitter throughout day one.

Republicans have a lot of nice things to say—when it’s not an election year. Thanks, Mayor Giuliani. #RNCinCLEpic.twitter.com/h24PKVqPFE — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 19, 2016

Looking just at speakers and people who appeared (aside from Mr and Mrs Trump), the top mentioned figures across social media were Rudy Giuliani, Sheriff David Clarke, Scott Baio, Patricia Smith and Steve King.

Of those top mentioned figures, Melania Trump predictably got the highest spikes.

#FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes trended into Tuesday morning.

Day 2 also saw Hillary Clinton make a large mark on the #GOPConvention conversation. She actually got a bigger mention spike than Mr Trump on Tuesday night.

It might have something to do with this tweet.

If you think Chris Christie can lecture anyone on ethics, we have a bridge to sell you. https://t.co/c1nkZojJFL#RNCinCLE — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 20, 2016

Moving on to day three, we focused on mentions of Trump’s running mate Mike Pence.

The politician garnered 48.7k mentions across social media on the third day of the convention.



To round off our social data on the GOP convention we took a look at mentions of Donald Trump throughout the whole four days. It was a big finish for the Republican nominee.

Are you a journalist looking to cover our data? Email react@brandwatch.com for more information