The Almighty, The All Powerful…The Tweet
This past week, Twitter revealed 2010’s “Twitter Trends”—a snapshot of the top overall topics that have dominated the 95 million tweets a day* sent this past year from across the world. Twitter released the top trends overall—splitting up the top tweets into categories including news events, people, movies, television, technology, world cup, sports, and hashtags.
According to a recent blog post, Twitter explains the “Twitter Trends” process as “automatically generated by an algorithm that attempts to identify topics that are being talked about more right now than they were previously. The Trends list is designed to help people discover the ‘most breaking’ breaking news from across the world, in real-time. The Trends list captures the hottest emerging topics, not just what’s most popular.”
Further, Jodi Olsen (@jodiolson), in charge of Twitter’s Corporate Communications, in a separate Twitter blog post added in, “These Trends indicate the things that are most meaningful in our lives. Each day on Twitter, people tweet about news, sports, entertainment and cool new technology–and everything else in between. The list of 2010 Twitter Trends reflects what’s happening in our world, demonstrates the power of turning any event or story into a shared experience, and underscores Twitter’s value as a real-time information network.”
The overall Top 10 Twitter Trends of 2010 are as follows:
- Gulf Oil Spill
- FIFA World Cup
- Inception
- Haiti Earthquake
- Vuvuzela
- Apple iPad
- Google Android
- Justin Bieber
- Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows
- Pulpo Paul
In addition to the top overall trends, Twitter compiled a list of the “10 Most Powerful Tweets.” Examining Twitter’s list of powerful tweets proved thought-provoking. It represents the various ways people use Twitter from the political world to disaster relief.
are as follows:
- Ann Curry: “@usairforce find a way to let Doctors without Borders planes land in Haiti: http://bit.ly/8hYZOK THE most effective at this.” (http://twitter.com/AnnCurry)
- The White House: “Welcome to @twitter President Medvedev! RT @KremlinRussia_E: Hello everyone! I’m on Twitter, and this is my first tweet.” (http://twitter.com/whitehouse/)
Cyclist Leigh Fazzina: “I’ve had a serious injury and NEED Help! Can somone please call Winding Trails in Farmington, CT tell them I’m stuck bike crash in woods.” (http://twitter.com/LeighFazzina/) - BP’s Fake PR Account: “Catastrophe is a strong word, let’s all agree to call it a whoopsie daisy.” (http://twitter.com/BPGlobalPR)
- Ecuador’s President: “Gobierno declara estado de Excepción #Ecuador #30S” (http://twitter.com/Presidencia_Ec)
- Clarence House, the office of the Prince of Wales: “The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton – www.princeofwales.gov.uk” (http://twitter.com/ClarenceHouse)
- Sun’s CEO: “Today’s my last day at Sun. I’ll miss it. Seems only fitting to end on a #haiku. Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more” (http://twitter.com/OpenJonathan/)
- Idaho’s John Foster: “Congratulations to Raul Labrador on a hard-earned win, and best of luck as Idaho’s next Congressman.” (http://twitter.com/foster208)
- Spain’s defender Carles Puyol: “Gran ambiente en la rua!!orgulloso de ver a tanta gente feliz. http://twitpic.com/24qkg5″ (http://twitter.com/Carles5puyol/)
Conan O’Brien: “Hey Internet: I’m headed to your town on a half-a–ed comedy & music tour. Go to http://TeamCoco.com for tix. I repeat: It’s half-a–ed.” (http://twitter.com/ConanOBrien/)
While the list may appear simple: 10 tweets; the 140-character statements prove the real power of Twitter as a social medium. Twitter isn’t about easy mass-marketing or how many times you can tweet at your followers– the real power of Twitter is creating conversation, building authentic relationships, and most importantly tweeting to your followers. Not to mention, Twitter is the essence of viral marketing—no other social network can match Twitter’s effectiveness and speed in getting a message across to millions of people. In fact, according to a recent study by Pew Research Center about 8% of American adults who use the Internet are Twitter users. Twitter just may be the communication tool of the coming age.
So my fellow Tweeps— how’s your buzz level? What did you tweet about this year? Do you have a powerful tweet that’s missing from the list above to share with us? What was your breakthrough tweet this year? Please share your thoughts and top tweets of the year with us in the comments below.
*Twitter Blog, 12/8/2010