1. Trending Topics Are NOT Always The Most Popular Things People Are Tweeting About: Buffer this
Weird, huh?
But for a topic to become a trend, it actually has to meet several criteria beyond just being “popular:”
► It has to have no foul language in it. ► It has to be popular with a lot of people in a short period of time—it has to “peak” in popularity. ► Total tweets AND the total number of people tweeting BOTH matter. But unless there are tweets from a lot of people—what Twitter calls “widespread popularity“—total tweets will NOT matter.
But that’s still not enough to become a trend! Even when a lot of people are tweeting about something, it won’t become a #TT unless it also meets one of these other criteria:
It has to be a new topic that has never been popular before, or…
It has to be a previously popular topic that has become popular with a new group of people.
So lots of tweets is not enough. And lots of people tweeting is not enough. A topic also has to be newly popular, or popular with a new group of people, as determined by Twitter’s automated algorithm—see below.
2. Why Twitter Removes Still-Popular Topics From Trending:
Some popular topics stay on the #TT list for a long time because more and more new people start tweeting about them. But some topics continue to get tons of tweets for a long time, yet are removed from the #TT list quickly—because no new people begin tweeting about them.
The same people saying the same things will NOT keep a topic trending.
The classic example of a very popular topic that is NOT a #TT is Justin Bieber. #Bieber tweets are virtually always popular on Twitter, but it’s always the same people tweeting.
3. Why Twitter Stops Some Tweets About Political Events From Trending. Buffer this
This is a very frustrating feature of how Twitter’s algorithm selects Trending Topics. Political events (or topics) can become deselected from the #TT in several ways:
► An event becomes “old news” before it happens
Scenario: People begin tweeting about the event in the days beforehand, and it becomes a #TT. But by the time the event arrives, it is “old news,” and unless a lot of new people begin tweeting about it, it won’t be on the #TT list anymore.
When #OccupyWallStreet trended everywhere worldwide, but not in the United Statespeople said Twitter censored it. Did they? No, because actually it had previously trended in the U.S., and now there were no more new people in the U.S. talking about it—the new people talking about it were elsewhere in the world.
► An event fails to “peak” in popularity
Scenario: Thousands of people tweet about a topic. If the tweets are all sent out in the same few minutes, it could easily become a #TT. But if those people send their tweets out over the course of several days, the topic will likely not trend.
► It wasn’t blocked—you just missed it
I see this all the time. Topics trend briefly, then the algorithm determines they are no longer really “peaking” and so they are removed. And then people say “Why isn’t this trending?” It did trend, but you missed it.
► But I have proof Twitter censored something!
Okay, but I’ve checked many such claims, and in each case, a much simpler explanation was obvious. Plus, every “proof” I’ve ever seen has been based around how many tweets are being sent, and trending is not just about the volume of tweets. (Plus, if Twitter really wanted to censor something…wouldn’t it want to hide the tweets themselves?)
4. Twitter BLOCKS Some Tweets From Counting Towards Trending Topics: Buffer this
► Twitter counts people more than tweets
Remember, Twitter’s algorithm counts how many people are tweeting about something—not just total tweets. So the same person tweeting 50 times about the same topic can be counted as “one person tweeting repeatedly about the topic” instead of “50 tweets about the topic.”
Twitter even says it could suspend your account if you “Repeatedly Tweet the same topic/hashtag without adding value to the conversation in an attempt to get the topic trending/trending higher.”
► Twitter doesn’t show all tweets in search results.
Tweets that do not show up in Twitter search results won’t be counted towards making a topic begin, restart or continue trending. Reasons tweets go missing can include:
Your profile has no name or bio.
Your account was just created.
You have almost never tweeted before.
No one has ever responded to your tweets—you don’t converse, are never retweeted and never mentioned.
Adding one or more topics/hashtags to an unrelated Tweet in an attempt to gain attention in search.
Repeatedly Tweeting the same topic/hashtag without adding value to the conversation in an attempt to get the topic trending/trending higher.
Tweeting about each trending topic in turn in order to drive traffic to your profile, especially when mixed with advertising.
Listing the trending topics in combination with a request to be followed.
Tweeting about a trending topic and posting a misleading link to something unrelated.
5. What Is Twitter’s Secret Formula For Selecting Trending Topics? Buffer this
While Twitter doesn’t reveal the exact formula, they have provided some details about how #TT’s are selected. The main things to remember are: ► Twitter may count total people tweeting more than total tweets. ► Twitter counts topics that are newly popular. This means topics must be “breaking” or “peaking” in order to trend. ► Topics that have been popular for awhile will not trend again (or will not keep trending) unless new people begin tweeting about them in large numbers in a short period of time. ► If Twitter allowed simply whatever is being tweeted about the most to always trend, large groups could dominate the trending topics all the time. In fact, this is what used to happen before Twitter implemented its algorithm. The main group that dominated the #TT’s was…Justin Bieber fans.
“Twitter Trends are 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. Put another way, Twitter favors novelty over popularity…”
6. Why Twitter Will Be Censoring MORE Trending Topics In the Future. Buffer this
As first reported on the TweetSmarter blog, Twitter is considering censoring “clearly offensive” topics in the future:
Bonus: What Areas Can You View Twitter Trends For?
You can click to view what’s trending worldwide, what’s trending in your country, or what’s trending in your local area.
This blog post has been kindly posted with the permission of Leo Widrich the Co-founder of Buffer to read his original post read this or check out his blog here.
I have just been reading Sharon Chan’s blog and I came across this new recruitment video that Twitter has done. I think its a great example of how you don’t need to take everything so seriously to get a good message across. It’s cheesy but it’s also low budget and people like cheesy stuff.
I think the fact that it has gone viral probably has something to do with the fact that it’s Twitter which is a cool company that most of us would love to work for. The clip has been viewed by more than 500K people.
Despite the rift between the lifestyles of the ordinary fan and players getting ever wider, social media has helped bridge the gap, giving followers much demanded access to their heroes. Once upon a time fans used to associate with players in pubs and join them in drinking a pint and sharing a cigarette, now they follow them on Twitter.
Nowadays, players can occasionally be seen in a nightclub, but if you really want to know what they are getting up to you follow them, not literally of course. A large number of high profile players and ex-players have quickly gained another level of notoriety through these streams. But is it really a good thing giving footballers the ability to speak their mind without having any control over what they’re saying?
Take Wayne Rooney for example. He has 2.5 million followers hanging on his every tweet. Given his personality on the pitch, it may have worried many at Manchester United that he was going to able to say anything he wanted without the club having any say, a worry that manifested itself when Rooney offered to fight a Liverpool fan after receiving abuse. He said, “I will put u asleep within 10 seconds hope u turn up if u don’t gonna tell everyone ur a scared little nit. I’ll be waiting.” Rooney later described as a “bit of banter.” However, the Man United Media Officer must have been reading with a bead of sweat on his brow and worried where it was going.
Lower down the leagues at Leeds United, a forum had to be temporarily shut down after a number of its members began to abuse the clubs Media Officer Paul Dews and make a number of unfounded accusations about his personal life. The decision was made by one of the site moderators to be shut down so that the situation could be calmed and an apology made. The situation could have become libellous but many fans thought it was the power of the club that had forced such a decision.
Most recently, ex-footballer Stan Collymore was racially abused through his Twitter account which came during the height of the racism row between Man United defender Patrice Evra and Liverpool midfielder Luis Suarez. Police arrested a 21 year old man after sending the tweets to Collymore whilst he was hosting his Talksport radio show.
It works both ways. With the price of watching football constantly increasing fans feel that they deserve more access to players, but once they achieve this they just berate the players. At the same time, players and ex-players like to try and stir things up which often leads unruly comments. Robbie Savage is constantly making statements such as, “had to take my wallet out of my suitcase because it was too heavy.” This is just said to get a reaction from fans. Once he loses control of the “banter” however, he then proceeds to throw his toys out of the pram and threaten to leave Twitter.
Whether football fans should have such access to players will always cause debate. At Leeds United players are banned from using Twitter after striker Davide Somma admitted to picking up a season-long injury before the club had gone public with the information. This may well be a sensible move that other clubs adopt if there are more incidents like Rooney’s. Fans, even of opposition sides, will tell players what they think of them and feel it is their right to do so. Fans look on and see players getting paid more money in a couple of seasons than many fans will earn in a lifetime. But does this give them the right to direct abuse at players?
This is a guest post from Christian Lawley and was cross posted on Dinosaur PR.
On Friday morning I started to get some new Direct Messages on my account (see examples in image) with phrases like:
“Want to lose any weight? go here: [link removed] best product for losing weight” And then later, “You seen what this person is saying about you? [link removed] terrible things..”
The first one of these is a link to yet another ‘Acai Berry’ site, but I’m pretty convinced the people who tweeted me didn’t know they were promoting this product through their direct messages.
The second one is currently out of action this morning, however it is linked to a domain tivvitter.com which has been associated with Stalktrack, a bogus app which purports to be able to ‘see who ‘stalks your twitter’, which was active last summer.
The stalktrak scam presents you with an ‘Authorise StalkTrak to use your account?’ page similar to ligitimate twitter authorization pages, which required you to enter your twitter login details. The purpose of the page was simply to steal your login so as to use your account to spread the messages to your followers via public and private messages.
Twitter is waging an ongoing war against spammers and hackers. I wrote about this here and here. It isn’t surprising that with such a large community there are some attempts to do this, so lets look after each other.
What if I’ve been Hacked?
If you believe that your account has been compromised and you have given away your login or authorized an app like this, or if your account sends out messages you didn’t authorize, there are two things you must do. 1. Revoke access to the applications that already have access to your account. Do this by visiting the Applications tab in Account Settings (when you are logged in).
2. Change your password. If you can’t login to your account anymore, request a reset of your password to be sent to your email address.
What if a friend sends me these messages?
If you come across someone who is sending you unsolicited Direct Messages – why not send them a link to this page so they know what to do?
This post was written by Su Butcher and originally published here on Su’s Blog http://www.justprofessionals.net and she kindly allowed us to share with you lovely people.
TweepsMap is an interesting Twitter app that will put your followers on a map of the world, literally. It analyses the percentage of total followers from countries, states, and cities. (here’s more about how it works) While you can check out the profiles of your followers and find out where they’re from (if they filled out the location information), you can’t really get a snapshot. When I analysed my followers, I discovered that 60% were from outside the US (compared to 70% on Facebook)
I made a mistake, I didn’t give my data the sniff test before sharing it. That’s some great advice from KD Paine for the last chapter of our forthcoming book, ”Measuring the Networked Nonprofit,” which is on data analysis and turning data in action. So, look at every chart, every graph, every number and ask does it make sense.
So I asked on Twitter if there was anyone out there from Washington state – and a number of them responded back. So, it looks like there is a glitch. My colleague, Zan Mccolloch-Lussier, from Washington state suggested that the problem might be that is confuses Washington, DC with Washington state.
Despite a few glitches, you use this tool to see if your audience is local or global. What did you discover by putting your Twitter followers on the map?
I’ve been using Twitter for more than five years. It is amazing how much has changed… both in perception of thEdite service as well as usage of service. And while the fail whale is still a dreaded sight it has become ingrained into our vocabulary. Twitter has done an amazing job of not only changing the way we communicate, but also changed the way we relate to one another. Lets step back in time and take a look at what Twitter used to be to the few early adopters and what it has become today to the masses.
First, its not a stretch to say that in the early days of Twitter it was viewed as some “nerd/geek” thing that was pointless. The only people who spent time on Twitter probably had no friends of their own. Plus, the biggest statement about twitter users was that they were “over-sharers”. People who were so narcissistic that they believed other people actually wanted to know when they were brushing their teeth or what they were having for dinner or the fact that they “just woke up”.
Fast forward to today and we see that Twitter has morphed into an amazing avenue of content sharing. But the truly amazing thing is that its not just for content sharing but also for content consumption. People from all different demographics are sharing content, conversation, and consumption. These are people that users probably would have no way to connect with or discover without Twitter.
I remember when talking to people about Twitter and its usefulness, most people simply laughed and made some reference to the fact that Twitter was simply a tool to keep you from doing any work. It was a procrastination enhancer. This probably correlated to the first issue where people just thought others were “over-sharers” and that anyone who spent time on Twitter was just wasting their time following people’s daily tasks… watching paint dry.
Now when any major news or event happens around the world Twitter is one of the most reliable and fastest sources of information. People tune into news and individual twitter accounts to get the latest and even real-time reporting of events. When was the last time we heard about a plane crash, earthquake, tsunami, sports victory, or election debate where we didn’t hear something about Twitter saying this or that?
Even when Twitter was getting started back in 2006, Jack Dorsey (founder/creator) tweeted the first tweet, “just setting up my twttr”. It was setup to share short bursts of inconsequential bits of information. It was built around the 140 character limit in order to encourage a more condensed form of chit-chat.
That original limiting 140 characters has become the creative building block to shape headlines and even help popularize the shortening of URLs so that linking of content would take the least amount of space because space was so valued. The 140 characters enabled users voices to get right to the point and not deal with idle chit-chat.
In the early days of Twitter, there were times it would seem like a massive black hole sucking all content and thoughts. The impression was left not only on critics but even many users felt that when they tweeted on twitter it was like talking to the wall. Even though there were lots of people, at times it could seem like nobody was listening.
I can’t tell you how many people I meet today who say they first made a connection with a friend or business associate first on Twitter because of a discussion revolving around a topic both participants were engaged and spun the conversation out into real life. Twitter has because a resource for creating connections and facilitating conversations.
Twitter was viewed as an mob scene with everyone shouting at the same time. There were only individuals. There were no brands, there were no products, there were no organizations. Even Twitter itself spent countless hours (and years) trying to find its own brand and financial stability.
But now, Twitter has an ongoing engagement between companies and brands and their valued customer base. Twitter gave a voice to brands. Twitter because useful for driving traffic… because now people were listening. It isn’t just a shouting black hole. And those companies and brands who take customer service seriously, Twitter has been an amazing gift for them as they are able to connect with and assist their customer base.
How have you seen twitter change? Do you think Twitter has gone in a positive direction? Where do you want Twitter to go from here? Oh, and if you want…. you can follow me at @benjaminbradley
This was a guest post kindly written and shared by Benjamin Bradley if you wish to see the original post you can do so here. If you think you have an interesting Twitter post that you would like to share with the world drop us an email.
I thought this was worth sharing on the Tweasier blog. Mashable has published this fantastic infographic of Twitter trends in 2011 which has been created by What the Trend.
A big hat tip to them, I was not very suprised to find Justin Bieber at the very top but it seems the UK must be having some effect too as the X-factor band One Direction have managed to make the number ten that did suprise me. I thought it would all be US type news and topics.
Mashable says:
Our friends at What the Trend (now a HootSuite company) analyzed over 207,518 hashtags to identify the top trending topics of 2011. Along with the big list comes a handful of more focused categories including movies, TV shows and news events. They’ve whipped up the handy infographic below for your year-end reflection on the vox populi.
Have you managed to contribute to this list in 2011?
It seems like nowadays, just about everyone is calling themselves an expert in something: marketing, social media, computers, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Sadly though, you can’t just take their word for it; you really have to do a little research and see if they’re a true expert. Regardless of what many people think, it really does take more than just having a Twitter account to be a Twitter expert. So, here are 6 questions to ask yourself before hiring someone as your personal Twitter expert.
How long have they been using Twitter?
Surely you already know that one must actually have a Twitter account to be an expert, but it’s not just about having an account. You need to find out how long they’ve actually been on Twitter because this one little thing will tell you a lot about their expertise. If they just joined Twitter a few months ago, then more than likely they are hardly an expert. Twitter was launched in 2006, so the closer to that year that they became a member, the more knowledgeable they are about Twitter, its evolution, and how to use it.
It’s also a good idea to check out any past Twitter accounts as well. Some people have had previous accounts that were deleted or maybe even hacked and suspended. Previous accounts will contribute to how long they’ve been on Twitter as well; so don’t just go by their current account.
How many followers do they have?
You’ll want to check out their Twitter follower-friend ratio. This is the ratio of followers to friends that they have; the higher the better. Anything lower than a 1.0 means that other users do not really care about what they’re saying. With a ratio this low, they definitely have a below average amount of followers (for an expert). You want to make sure they have a ratio of 2.0 or higher. This shows that they are pretty popular on Twitter and others are listening and like what they’re tweeting. A ratio of 2.0 and higher shows that they are a true Twitter leader.
What’s their tweeting style?
You really want to check out their tweeting style because a true Twitter expert would not be doing anything wrong in this area. Are they pushing out affiliate links or links just pertaining to their own content, or are they retweeting other users and sharing quality links from different sources? Are they interacting with their followers; do you see decent amount of @mentions in their timeline? These are some things to look for because a true Twitter expert understands that Twitter is not just about shameless promotion or ignoring your followers.
How many retweets do they receive?
This goes along with their tweeting style, but it’s even more important because it will prove that other users like what they are tweeting about and the content their publishing. You can use a tool like Retweet Rank to see how they rate among other Twitter users; the higher their rank the better. This means that many other Twitter users are reading and sharing their content; this also shows that they have a large reach on Twitter.
What’s in their bio?
You only get 160 characters for your Twitter bio, so what one puts in there is really important. It should really showcase their expertise and give users a good first impression. A true Twitter expert will know just what to put here to prove their credibility show that they mean business. It’s also a good idea to check out the website or blog link underneath their bio. A person’s website can really tell you a lot about them and show how knowledgeable they are.
How are their clients doing?
Lastly, you should check out the profiles of other Twitter users that they are managing and see how well they’re doing. This will really give you a good idea of what they’re capable of and you can get a general idea of how well they’ll do with you. If their clients are not doing that well, you can be sure that they won’t do much better with you. What you need is actual results, not empty promises. While there are a few exceptions you might want to make here or there, it’s important to stick to your guns. In the end it’s about what you need to succeed and what’s best for you. So, be sure to take your time and thoroughly answer these questions before hiring a Twitter expert.
This was a guest post written by Lior Levin who is an advisor to Kitchen Stools Direct, a bar stools and kitchen stools online store that Lior advises to.
It’s a known fact that everyone loves freebies. Anything free will do from products to gift cards to service subscriptions. If you’re giving away something free and promote it correctly, you’re sure to receive a beneficial amount of traffic and new followers from it.
One of the best methods of running a promotion is through social media, with Twitter being an obvious first choice. Let’s take a look at some of the steps you should take in order to get the most out of your Twitter promotion. These tools were used by us at Kitchen Stools Direct when we did our contests on twitter.
Get Organized
You’ll need a detailed outline of your goals and the steps you’ll follow to achieve those goals. You’ll need to market your promotion so that people will know about it. What methods will you use? You’ll need a way to measure the success of your promotion. Will it be based the number of new followers you get or maybe how many retweets your article explaining the promotion gets? How will you keep track of new followers, retweets, hashtags, etc? Will you use an online tool like OneKontest or Wildfire to manage your contest?
All of these details need to be worked out and defined before you begin your promotion.
Pick a Method
Let’s go into a little more detail about how you’ll measure the success of your promotion. You’ll need to pick a metric to be measured. The best methods for spreading the word and measuring the success of a Twitter promotion are:
Requiring users to follow your account. You can offer a special prize to the first 100, 500 or 1000 users. Alternately, you can also offer something special to every 100th, 500th, or 1000th user that followers you. The numbers you use are of course up to you, but these are the most commonly used.
Requiring a retweet of an article or blog post. You could create a blog post explaining the promotion and then require that people retweet it in order to enter. This is a great way to get the word out on Twitter; a great giveaway is sure to get lots of retweets.
Requiring the use of a hashtag. Come up with a creative hashtag and require users to add it to an original tweet about your product, company or promotion. This is also a great way to get the word out.
Requiring a retweet and hashtag. This is the best of both worlds and the most commonly used method.
Choose Your Prize
Now, what will you offer users who follow, retweet or use your hashtag? You will need to choose your prize wisely. Even though everyone loves freebies, it’s still important to make the item worth their while. Some very popular options include: gift cards, free shipping, free samples, promotion codes for apps, and service subscriptions (1, 3 or even 6 months free it’s up to you). Budget is an important thing to keep in mind. You don’t want to promise something that you can’t afford.
Add it All Up
Whichever method you choose, be sure that you’ll be able to accurately keep track of who is participating. It will be a huge pain to count hashtags, but a retweet button lets you know exactly how many people have retweeted the item. As long as you make a note of how many followers you had before you started, this method is a piece of cake with a little subtraction. Of course, you could always just use one of the Twitter contest tools mentioned above; it will do all of the hard work for you.
Success
You’ve executed your marketing plan, you’ve gotten the word out, people are participating and word is spreading, sales are increasing, so that could only mean one thing – your Twitter promotion is a success! Following these steps you’ll be well on your way to reaping the benefits and getting the most out of your Twitter promotion. Remember, it’s about about proper planning and execution. Good luck!
This was a post by Lior who works for Kitchen Stools Direct, a bar stools and kitchen stools online brand.
Perri Blake Gorman aka @bethebutterfly is an expat living in Hong Kong, connector of experts, Twitter passionista, social media trainer and consultant, blogger, reformed head hunter, environmentalist, lover of children & animals, & citizen of the world.
People who aren’t on Twitter ask me all the time why I love it so much. There are a million and one reasons really, but one in particular is the unbelievable global community I have seen grow around doing good for good’s sake.
The campaigns, the retweeting, the fundraising, the Twestivals, the #LOVE. The good news is it isn’t all virtual. Lives are actually being changed. Not all through Twitter alone clearly, but awareness and spreading the word is a huge part of what many organizations need to achieve their goals.
Every action each person takes helps.
“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” – Helen Keller
1. Make a List for Charity
There are a number of exceptional lists to follow out there. You can check out the directory of charity lists on Listorious and search through them for inspiration to customize your own list.
Your Twitter background is valuable real-estate. If you don’t have a background, or you would like to share it with charity, there are some you can download for free.
A notable example of this is Jonathan Wilson from @OperationSafe. He has worked enormously hard to build a team of Tweeters that actively ReTweet on behalf of the charity to help spread the word.
He has also created a list to bring the team together.
Larger organizations may have their own Tweeters, but don’t make assumptions. Tweeting on behalf of an organization takes a greater time commitment, but some people have time to give and not money. If you are a tweeter and have a cause that you care about, contact them and volunteer to tweet on their behalf. Depending on the size of the organization they may be very happy to have the help, or suggest a way for you to be involved like a Retweet Team Member.
Platforms like CoTweet can make it easier for organizations to manage multiple tweeters.
4. Wear the badge
We all know and love those cute little stickima-jiggys on people’s avatars, but they actually mean something! You can change them up or wear a few at a time! Go nuts!
Tweetups are a really fun way to meet your Twitter friends in person and take the online relationships offline. Why not do something in true Twitter spirit and pick a charity to support when you Tweetup. Big or small, every little bit counts.
This is a guest post courtesy of Penn Olson.com, you can read the original post here.
People who aren’t on Twitter ask me all the time why I love it so much. There are a million and one reasons really, but one in particular is the unbelievable global community I have seen grow around doing good for good’s sake.
There are a number of exceptional lists to follow out there. You can check out the directory of charity lists on 
A notable example of this is Jonathan Wilson from @
