Today’s trending topics on Twitter would include #PrinceWilliam, #KateMiddleton and many more hot topics that people are talking about around the world. What’s trending on Twitter would change every day and perhaps a few times a day. In other words, trending topics on Twitter are subjects people are talking about. The more popular a subject, the more likely it will be trending.
An easy way to understand this is if you think of Twitter as a huge mansion with loads of different rooms. Each room in this massive house is filled with crowds of people talking about a specific topic. Each room has a different subject that’s being discussed.
The more a room fills up, the larger it grows till finally almost everyone on Twitter is talking about it – this room’s topic becomes a trend and thus, will be trending on Twitter (the mansion).
Now, every room has a door with a label on it which describes the topic e.g. #BlackFriday or #JujuFriday. These are portrayed as hash tags on Twitter. By clicking on a hash tag you are entering a room and eavesdropping on the conversations – you can even join in.
Every day new rooms are created with new topics. These topics are based on our daily lives or anything that seems to catch the eye of the world (sport, news, entertainment, politics etc).
Now that you understand what it means and how it works, do you think it’s useful?
Read more posts by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg
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Trending topics can predict real world outcomes. Check out this SlideShare document : Predicting the Future With Social Media [http://slidesha.re/cm7ypI]. The researchers demonstrate how social media content can be used to predict real-world outcomes. In particular, they use the chatter from Twitter.com to forecast box-office revenues for movies.
That’s brilliant Zibuka! I am so surprised to find people still underestimating the value in Twitter or any social network for that matter. This slideshow is a really good read too.
I’m glad that you enjoyed the reading the slideshow Yolandi. Human beings are social creatures who desire to connect with each other (by sharing stories) – therefore community is a fundamental part of our lives. Social media tools facilitate the connection between individuals. The value of the tool is giving individuals a voice and allowing them to connect with others. Those that aren’t socialable are given the confidence through social media to connect. In essence, social media is the fire around which our ancestors gathered to share stories about what was important to them.
Couldn’t have said it any better Clint. This is a question people tend to ask all the time “Why Twitter? Why Facebook? What’s the point?” And the answer is like you say it: “The value of the tool is giving individuals a voice and allowing them to connect with others”.
Thanks for commenting Clint!
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Trending can certainly be a useful, dynamic research tool