Pope Francis’ visit to the Philippines lasted for five days, generating a storm of activity on social media.

 

According to analytics site Topsy, a social search and analytics company, Twitter activity about the papal visit began to pick up on January 11, four days before Pope Francis’ arrival in the country.

 

Activity for the hashtags #PopeFrancisPH and #PapalVisitPH peaked on January 15 with Tweets numbering at 136,473 and 39,154, respectively, while #BlessedByThePope peaked the day after, on January 16, with 28,830 Tweets.

 

 

Filipino netizens took to social media to welcome Pope Francis, and for a few hours “Welcome to the Philippines Pope Francis” claimed the number one spot for Philippine Twitter trends.

#BlessedByThePope also trended for a while on Thursday, January 15.

 

People were most active on social media on January 16. That was the day when people took notice of that cute responsorial psalmist at the Manila Cathedral mass; when Pinoys’ witticisms and meme-making skills were put on display; and when Pope Francis tweeted in Filipino—not just once, but twice.

 

Facebook

 

As of January 19, the most popular article on Facebook was about the father of Kristel Mae Padasas, the woman who died after the papal mass at Tacloban after the scaffolding of a speaker fell on her. It garnered 34,780 Likes and 819 Shares, with people offering their condolences and sympathies in the comments. Pope Francis also met with Padasas’ father at the Apostolic Nunciature, spending 20 minutes with him.

 

Among the top ten Facebook posts on GMA’s official account, were multiple stories about the determination of devotees who wanted to catch a glimpse of the pontiff. The rain wasn’t enough to deter the faithful from attending the mass at Luneta, with the pope leaving many feeling blessed after the experience.

 

Even after Pope Francis’ departure, Filipinos seem to have a hard time letting go: the hashtag #WeLovePopeFrancis  was the third top worldwide trend on Twitter as of 11:24 a.m. — TJD, GMA News