Prince dies, a social media king is crowned

“In the 15hrs since the announcement, there has been an outpouring of support, respect and heartbreak over the news - totalling over 3.5 million social media responses. Or, 60 a second.” said Kelvin Jonck, MD of YouKnow Digital.

The iconic New Yorker cover for its upcoming tribute to Prince

At a high level, the vast majority of the conversation pertains to general information sharing about his death and sadness at the loss. Digging deeper though, there is a considerable volume of conversation relating to various songs and memories.

In many respects there is global reflection - a wake of sorts - taking place for Prince, said Jonck.

As was his appeal, the conversation is truly global, with the largest percentage of the volume coming from the America’s followed by Australia. South Africa itself isn’t fairing too poorly at 315 social engagements per million citizens.

…“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life” – Prince…

“When looking at the specifics of the conversation we see that only 31% of the conversation is related to reporting or sadness relating to his death. Rather, we’re seeing that 51% of the conversation is relating to memories and giving thanks for specific songs (with many individuals and radio stations putting his songs on in honour of the legend),” Jonck reported.

Of all the songs mentioned by consumers, the 1986 Grammy winning, Kiss came up first (included in almost 30% of all mentions, a sizable 1 045 880 mentions) followed by the iconic Purple Rain (12%).

“It goes without saying that Prince was a musical, social and cultural legend and while there is mourning, it’s great to see his indomitable spirit coming through in how his fans have decided to remember him.”

*All data sourced from Crimson Hexagon.