By Mike Cavender, RTDNA Executive Director

If you weren’t watching the Super Bowl Sunday, you were pretty much alone!  Nielsen estimates more than 111-million viewers were—making it the most watched program in television history.  For the third year in a row!  That’s a 47 rating and a 71 share for those of you that are into statistics other than running and passing yardage.

But what’s even more interesting than that fourth quarter was the fact that, by some estimates, it was also the biggest social TV event ever. Social Times reports that Bluefin Labs estimates that the game nearly quadrupled (with 12.2 million) the number of social media comments made during a TV show—crushing the old record that was held by the MTV Video Music Awards.

What about Twitter?  How about an estimate of more than 12,000 TPS (Tweets Per Second!)  Foursquare was said to have the biggest check-in of the year from Super Bowl events, some 350,000.  And as you might expect, the leading Google searches were all related to the game; Patriots, Giants, Tom Brady and, of course, Madonna!

What does all this mean to you?  If you weren’t convinced that the power of Social Media is real—you better be now!  And if you aren’t using these tools to advance your product and build your brand—it’s way past time to get on the social media bus.

RTDNA and NAB are there to help, too.  Coming up in April, at NAB’s big show, RTDNA will provide a day of sessions all oriented toward the programming and management challenges you face to effectively and efficiently incorporate this new power medium into your organizations and your product.

Our topics include managing the multimedia newsroom, using Social Media effectively in your political and election coverage this year and how to leverage the Facebooks and Twitters of the world to build and enhance your brand.  Additionally, we’ll have an “Issues and Ale” session featuring top attorneys to answer your questions about navigating the legal issues in this new frontier. 

Chairman-Elect Vince Duffy, who is producing this great event, promises you’ll go away at the end of the day better prepared than ever to harness social media for your organization through newfound wisdom, best practices and some great advice.

Tuesday, April 17 is the day…Las Vegas is the place…be there!  (and be sure to Tweet your friends!)