2009 Twitter Social Trends

In 2009 Twitter blew up.  It went from a geek hangout for those creating seismic interests and reactions to the favorite news breaking measurement tool of the mainstream media.  Now, all the major news outlets, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, have a Twitter page.  They want in on the human social trend-o-meter is thinking, is reacting to, and of course what news is broken.  Its safe to say that Twitter is human social-odometer that captures the interest and reaction of people around the world.

Some of the people social trends Twitter captured in 2009 (way before the news media picked it up and reported on it were:)
1. Michael Jackson
2. Susan Boyle
3. Adam Lambert
4. Kobe (Bryant)
5. Chris Brown
6. Chuck Norris
7. Joe Wilson
8. Tiger Woods
9. Christian Bale
10. A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez)

All of these people were news worthy and served as breaking news stories all on their own.  No longer do we need to watch end of the year “what happened in….” TV shows, we now have Twitter.  Honestly, if I want to find out what’s going on in the world right now, I search the trends on Twitter.  Usually, the news organizations are at least an hour behind Twitter.  I’ve even been watching CNN when the news anchor has stated, “…this just in from Twitter….”

Twitter as a trusted news source?

The top 10 news stories in 2009 according to Twitter were:

1. #iranelection
2. Swine Flu
3. Gaza
4. Iran
5. Tehran
6. #swineflu
7. AIG
8. #uksnow
9. Earth Hour
10. #inaug09

When the Iran Election was going on, I kept my eyes glued to Twitter because of the factual, up to the minute eyewitness reports from Iranian Twitterers.  It was better than watching it on television, the information was raw and real.  It was reality Twitter.  2010 will be interesting as Twitter becomes even more useful and accepted as a form of communication between nations and groups of people.

Speaking of people, when this year’s BET Awards went super-ghetto, Twitter was the place to be.  Anyone who was watching the Awards show (which was supposed to have been an impromptu tribute to Michael Jackson) will tell you how disappointing it was. The BET Awards showed how ignorant of our favorite entertainers really are.  Ving Rhames getting onstage obviously drunk and/or high was one of the low points of the show and that’s one of the reasons the BET Awards made the top 10 TV shows list of 2009 on Twitter:

1. American Idol
2. Glee
3. Teen Choice Awards
4. SNL (Saturday Night Live)
5. Dollhouse
6. Grey’s Anatomy
7. VMAS (Video Music Awards)
8. #bsg (Battlestar Galatica)
9. BET Awards
10. Lost

2009 on Twitter will also be the year remembered for a film gaining so much social media juice that it went on to become a box office hit.  “Paranormal Activity” was a low budget movie in limited release.  However, by the time hundreds of thousands of Facebookers became fans, and Twitterers tweeted about it, the movie became a text book case on how to promote a product using social media.  The top 10 movies of 2009 according to Twitter were:

1. Harry Potter
2. New Moon
3. District 9
4. Paranormal Activity
5. Star Trek
6. True Blood
7. Transformers 2
8. Watchmen
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. G.I. Joe

Since using Twitter as much as I do in 2009, I discovered lots and lots of techies live in Twitterville.  All you have to do is post a tweet about Google Wave or the latest Apple iPhone app, and watch your tweet get retweeted throughout the Twitter universe.  When the Google Wave special invites went out (I didn’t get one, so could someone hook me up?), Twitter was filled with heated passion.  Twitterers wanted to know how to get one, what price could be paid to obtain one, or can we trade something for an invite to Googles’ latest prized possession.  Apparently, you had to be ‘somebody’ in social media in order to obtain an invite, but Twitter was on fire about this latest tech news.  Here is the list of top 10 tech news Twitter discussions in 2009:

1. Google Wave
2. Snow Leopard
3. Tweetdeck
4. Windows 7
5. CES
6. Palm Pre
7. Google Latitude
8. #E3
9. #amazonfail
10. Macworld

The new year can only lead to more speculation on what will be hot on Twitter or not.  You can not predict the future, no one has successfully done it yet, but you can bet Twitter will be there to report about the latest and the greatest social trends.  By the way, can you hit the Tweet green and white button at the top of this story?  I’d like to share it with all of Twitterville.  Thank you, and Happy New Year!!!!

Related articles by Zemanta

• “Top Twitter Trends of 2009″ and related posts (twitter.com)
• 2009 As Seen Through Twitter Hashtags (mashable.com)
• The Biggest Twitter Trends Of 2009 – What Was The Top Topic? (thenextweb.com)
• Top Facebook & Twitter Trends for 2009 (trak.in)
• Twitter Trends in 2009: A Retrospective (readwriteweb.com)
• MSNBC Grabs @BreakingNews Twitter Account and its 1.4 Million Followers (mashable.com)

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