Using Starcom MediaVest Group’s ECHOscreen tracking tool, we had a look at the mentions on Twitter of the Eurovision competition. And with over 2.3 million tweets around the event – peaking at over 25,000 tweets a second – it certainly gave us plenty to look at.

To put this number into context, its more than double the million tweets around the Manchester derby earlier this month, and this years BRIT awards generated around 1.3 million tweets. Even the big “event” TV shows like Britain’s Got Talent, The Voice and The Apprentice do well to generate more than a few hundred thousand tweets over the course of a show. (And although there was certainly a broader international audience than UK TV shows, the English language still dominated the tweets.)

As the broadcast started, an excited fanbase was already sending 5,000 tweets per minute, but by the time the UK’s Engelbert Humperdinck had finished the first performance of the night, this had more than doubled to 11,554 tweets/min.

(Sadly for #TheHump, his performance was yet to generate its peak on Twitter when for a brief while during the scoring, the UK dropped into the last place on the table, when Twitter hit 12,983 tweets in a minute.)

And as Albania’s Rona Lishliu’s singing reached what I suppose you would call a crescendo, Twitter did the same – reacting to the performance which terrified some of the audience.

While its fun to watch different countries’ ideas of ‘music’, for me it’s the connection between whats happening on television with what is happening in the digital space that fascinates me.

It was the during the sixth performance of the night as the Buranovskiye Babushki (AKA “Russian Grannies”) sang “Party for Everybody” that Twitter hit its peak for the evening at 25,057 tweets in a single minute (475 tweets in a second.)

But although the Russian performance was clearly going to be a favourite following the earlier rounds, it appears that the online reaction may have been enough to draw an additional 1 million TV viewers (compared to 10 minutes before their performance.) Not as large a spike in audience as later on when the England match finished, but still what appears to be an impressive impact from online media on the online audience.

Many of those who switched over will have been just in time to see Jedward’s performance for Ireland. Although it might have been a disappointment for the voters, it certainly generated a reaction on Twitter with the second highest peak of 23,828 tweets/minute. And while Sweden’s “Euphoria” went on to win the competition, it only generated the 6th highest peak on Twitter with 17,817 tweets/minute.

We have produced this visualisation of the data we collected to help show how the volumes of tweets fluctuate over time. Its interesting to see how clear the audience’s reactions to each act is, at its lowest in the moments before each act comes onto the stage.

This speed of response is something brands should take note of – people are not just watching, but reacting to events in real time. While it may have been a shock a few years ago to realize that businesses needed to react in a matter of hours rather than days, we may be approaching a point where even a few minutes is a few minutes too long. But besides that, there is insight that can be gained from looking at what is happening on social media that goes beyond looking at what they are saying it – when they are talking can be an equally valuable source of information.

Scott Thompson is digital research manager at Starcom MediaVest Group