Trending Topics on Twitter

For all you Twitter users out there... you probably have some knowledge about the list of "trending topics" on the right hand side of the home page.

Twitter lists the trending topics for "right now," "today" and "this week." The site explains trending topics as, "Twitter looks at every incoming tweet,then ranks the popularity of certain words or phrases in real time." So in an nut shell it's what people are tweeting about most. The topics usually relate to breaking news or hot topics at the time, but sometimes they seem to be completely random.

But what starts a trending topic? People just start tweeting about the same thing and it becomes a popular subject to include in your allotted 140 characters. I did a little research to try and find out more about trending topics on Twitter and found out a lot.

First of all there are trending topics, which Twitter ranks, but then there are hashtags, which users can purposely add to a subject or topic they might be referring to. Say for example during the MTV Video Music Awards last month, #VMA was a hashtag used in tweets for reactions during the show.

For more information visit these sites to learn more:

-Twitter Fan Wiki has a great page about Hashtags

-Mashable offers 15 Ways to Track Twitter Trends

-How to use hashtags for business on Mashable


You can even follow these users on Twitter too!

@trendingtopics
Bio: I tweet the topics that are being talked about most on Twitter

@wthashtag
Bio: The user-editable encyclopedia for hashtags found on Twitter. Follow this acct and send a DM to look up a hashtag.
Or visit their site: What the Hashtag?!

Do you use hashtags or follow trending topics regularly on Twitter? Do you have any advice?