If you haven’t heard that Osama bin Laden is dead, you must be living under a rock (No pun intended). When news first broke about Osama, it didn’t happen on any major news network. Twitter beat everyone to it, in fact, the events of Osama’s death were live tweeted by a guy chilling in the mountains nearby the U.S. operation that took out bin Laden.
A crazy burst of social media activity kicked off by the first tweets is still going strong. As social media continues to become increasingly more powerful as a medium for spreading world news, the reactions to significant world events on those networks evolves.
It wasn’t but a few hours before all of the following stories played out across various sites like Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and even Google Maps. After a few hours of ‘osamnia’, I compiled a guide to all the best Osama related social media stories so you don’t have to scour the internet for them. These stories cover everything from the event’s live tweets, to Foursquare check-ins to the post-Osama world.
- Almost unbelievably, a man from Pakistan unwittingly live broadcast the U.S. operation that killed Osama. I guess it’s a good thing Osama doesn’t monitor Twitter from his cave very carefully.
- Before President Obama’s announcement, there was a ton of speculation about Osama’s death on social networks all across the world. In particular, Twitter was going nuts with trending hashtags such as #obamagotosama, #OBL, #osamasdeath, #abottabad, #wherewereyou, and tons of others. Check out the list here.
- Fans at a Phillies game quickly got word of Osama’s possible death via text messages, Twitter on their phones, and Facebook, the crowd quickly burst into chants of U-S-A! Fans went home happy even though their team eventually lost in 14 innings. (Check out the video too)
- Within hours of all the activity, a Facebook fan page called ‘Osama bin Laden is DEAD’ went viral, amassing thousands of ‘likes’ every minute.
- Users of Foursquare began creating fictitious check-ins for the post-Osama world. Check-in locations included Osama bin gonathon, Osamapocalypse 2011, among others.
- Mashable quickly put together a timeline of the important tweets covering the event: ‘How News of Osama’s Death Unfolded on Twitter’.
- Search Engine Land put together a nice piece on how Google was affected by the events. You can see Google post-911 and then check out the types of suggested searches that have resulted from Osama’s death.
- Another nice story from Mashable puts together a more broad overview of how the world responded to Osama’s death online.
- Google Maps now shows Osama’s final location. Maps users have even written reviews of his now destroyed compound.
- A few Osama related Facebook status updates have gone viral, many referring to Osama as ‘Hide and Seek World Champion’ as well as other updates filled with USA pride. Check your own Facebook feed for some of those and also this piece briefly covering how some of the other, smaller networks reacted to Osama’s death.
