Twitter is an excellent tool for sharing news. It has the power to turn topics viral, which can be very helpful for bringing publicity to a company or Twitter page. It can also bring a lot of traffic to businesses. When topics go viral on Twitter and are creating a buzz, they are known as trending topics.

For those who are not familiar with Twitter trending topics, they are breaking news that people are sharing and commenting on. A “#” may appear in front of the phrase or word, those are called hashtags, which categorize it into a topic that people can converse about it. It is a great way to promote your page.

They are listed on the right side of the Twitter homepage where the timeline appears. It can also be localized, rather than having a list of trending topics worldwide, Twitter allows users to narrow down the topics to local areas, so users can see what is going on in other countries.

Here is a list of examples for some of the trending topics in early 2011:

• #swineflu – for Swine Flu
• Cairo – capital of Egypt
• #prayforjapan – sentiment following the March earthquake and tsunami
• Libia/Libya – site of an ongoing civil war
• Fukushima – Japanese nuclear power plant
• William & Kate – Newly-named Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
• Gadafi – Libyan political leader

Here are some topics relating to pop culture:

• Rebecca Black – pop singer of the song “Friday”
• Femme Fatale – newly-released Britney Spears album
• Charlie Sheen – actor from Two and A Half Men
• #tigerblood – hashtag made popular by Charlie Sheen
• Nate Dogg – rap artist
• Queen Gaga – referring to artist Lady Gaga

Here are a few for the end of the year that highlights some of the key events that took place recently:

• #London Riot- For the riots that happened in London
• #OccupyWallstreet- for what’s taking place in Wallstreet
• #Irene- for Hurrican Irene
• #VMA- For Beyonce’s news about her pregnancy
• #Thingslongerthankimsmarriage- from Kim Kardashian’s news on divorce
• #osamadead, #osamabinladen, #osama- Osama Bin ladens death

And of course, one that got so many reactions:

• #RIPStevejobs, #SteveJobs, #iHeaven, #iSad, #ThankyouSteve- for the passing of Steve Jobs

When Hurricane Irene hit in late August, #Irene became a popular hashtag and received over 1 million tweets that were related to the hurricane. TGDaily said it was a weak storm but a social media superstorm.

Trending topics are excellent way to follow news and keep updated on events. It is also a great way to share thoughts relating to that topic. It can lead to debate or even bring out a project to help others. An example would be the riots that took place in London. After the riots, a #riotcleanup hashtag was started which led to a Twitter page devoted to helping those affected by the riots.

Twitter was the first to report Osama bin Laden’s death, even before President Obama’s broadcast. Country singer Keith Urban tweeted hearing about the death from a credible source and soon after Twitter was receiving over 4000 tweets per second.

Twitter trending topics are very useful for promoting an event or any news in general. It is important to promote your hashtag so users will know the official hashtag for whatever it is that is being promoted and can join  in on the conversation.

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