Social Media is no joke.   The recent Republican National Convention (RNC) is the latest example of how it works (see video at the end of this story).

While many sceptics are down on social media startups  these days, there is one that is kicking some serious butt right now – thismoment.com.

As SiliconANGLE has reported Thismoment.com has been powering some of the biggest social media events of the year including the top Olympics brands, the Hunger Games movie franchise, and now the Repulican National Convention.

Associated Press is reportingthat for conventions, TV viewing down, social media up.

TV viewership for last week’s Republican National Convention dropped sharply from 2008, suggesting interest in this presidential race falls short of some past contests. But the convention was a hit online and on social networks, the latest evidence of the political conversation’s gradual migration from traditional media to the Web.

The Nielsen Co. estimates that about 30.3 million viewers across 11 television networks watched convention coverage Thursday night when Mitt Romney delivered his prime-time speech accepting the GOP presidential nomination. That’s a 23 percent plunge from the same night four years ago when nearly 39 million people tuned in to watch then-GOP nominee John McCain address the convention and the nation.

The erosion of TV viewership from 2008 was sharper still on Wednesday night when Romney running mate Paul Ryan drew about 22 million viewers for his acceptance speech. That’s a 41 percent drop from 2008 when some 37 million tuned in for vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin’s debut on the national stage.

Built on YouTube with Thismoment software and in partnership with the digital media agency Rockfish, the site is live streaming all the speeches via AEG while simultaneously including the conversation by meshing in all the tweets and Facebook comments. Previously, I have written about Thismoment, the SF based software company that has helped some of the biggest brands including Coca-Cola, P&G, AT&T and others succeed in social marketing through live events such as concerts and the Olympics. Apparently the RNC has taken notice and is applying very sophisticated brand marketing techniques for their own convention-impressive. Who says the Democrats are the techy cool party?

“We love Republicans and Democrats as long as they as they buy our software. For the first time ever the voters can talk back to the political parties in real time, which has really changed the way the political parties and the candidates brand themselves.” said Thismoment CMO John Bara.

The Republicans and the RNC are taking a page from the Democrat’s playbook by showing a very tech-savvy, youthful side of the party’s big event.  Plus they are capturing the emotion of the event and sharing the reaction of viewers whether they are attending live in Tampa, watching on broadcast television, or surfing on-line.  The site runs on any computer, but also on iPad or other tablets plus mobile phones and devices.

The other hot trend here is user-generated content or UGC. Smart phones and high bandwidth have made every attendee a distributed photographer of videographer, and the content is exploding through sharing via social channels. Attendees comment about the event, and they also share photos and videos directly to the YouTube site.

One of the most popular features of the convention floor was the “debt clock”, which showed both the running clock of the United States government’s debt and the debt incurred since the start of the convention.

Convention goers have jumped on the message that Obama and the Democrats are bankrupting the U.S. by taking photos and videos of the debt clock and ending them into the YouTube site.   The GOP and the RNC have unleashed the power of their political machine via social media, and it looks like a good move so far.

The Future of Media Is Now

The future of media as we have been discussing and demonstrating here at SiliconANGLE is about the new user experience.  This video below is a great testament to where media is going.  It’s no longer about TV, print, and radio.