I saw my first Promoted Tweet tonight in Twitter’s Trending: Worldwide list.
The Promoted Tweet?
Toy Story 3 from DisneyPixar.
Toy Story 3 Promoted Tweet in Trending Worldwide
DisneyPixar’s Promoted Tweet also found its way into Twitter search results for Toy Story 3.
Promoted Tweets In Twitter Search Results
Whether any of this attention on Twitter translates into measurable increased word of mouth for the film or better yet increased box office sales remains to be seen.
Happn.in is a Twitter tool that shows what people are tweeting about locally in 80 cities around the world.
Local Twitter Trends by Market
Drilling down into each city produces a list of several hundred to several thousand Twitter account holders who have self identified their locations in their Twitter accounts.
Visitors to Happn.in can click through to each list to scan for potential Twitter accounts to follow or broadcast their message to everyone in a particular market via their Talk to Your City feature.
Talk To Your City
Rakshith Krishnappa has also created a local Twitter trends map for Happn.in using their API and Google Maps.
Local Twitter Trends
Want to find out what Twitter users are saying in any particular market?
Just click on the push pin and the top 10 subjects being Tweeted are displayed inline on Google Maps.
Local Twitter Trends by City
Pretty cool.
The Trending Topics feature on Twitter.com still has considerable room for improvement.
Users have gamed Twitter’s search “ranking” system to promote their businesses in Twitter Trending Topics as well as inundate searchers with all sorts of spam from porn to “Get Rich Tweeting” scams.
Now comes illegal movie downloads.
With the recent release of Bruno and the upcoming release of the latest Harry Potter installment, content pirates have taken to setting up Twitter accounts and pushing their pirated movie copies via Trending Topics tweets.
Twitter Trending Topics
A Twitter search for Bruno produces the following search results:
Pirates Pushing Illegal Movie Downloads via Twitter
Spam alone may be the prevailing reason why real time search hasn’t yet become ready for prime time.
It appears Twitter has removed the Trending Topics list of the top subjects being tweeted.
Twitter Trending Topics Gone
I wonder if Trending Topics had become a Twitter spam magnet?
Although real time search is one of the many heralded utilities of Twitter, it seems the average consumer’s attention isn’t quite as focused in the present as Twitter’s search results are – at least at this particular moment in time.
According to Twitter’s trending topics: Easter is the most popular topic of conversation in the Twitterverse – this Tuesday two days after Easter Sunday.
Real Time Warp Search
If this trending topic result doesn’t illustrate the value of reaching Twitter’s audience, I don’t know what will.
Tonight while watching the AFC Championship game, I witnessed one of the most brutal hits I had seen in professional football this year.
Willis McGahee of the Baltimore Ravens was laid out by Pittsburgh Steeler Ryan Clark.
After seeing several replays of the hit while McGahee laid nearly motionless, it wasn’t clear to what degree he had been injured.
Fortunately within an hour after the hit, the AP reported McGahee had “significant neck pain” but had movement in his arms and legs.
I happened to be on Twitter when the Clark McGahee hit occurred.
Within a minute or two of the hit I took this screen shot of the Twitter Search and Trending Topics page.
Trending Topics 9:08 PM CST
The Steelers and Troy Polamolu were both in Twitter’s Trending Topics at 9:08 PM CST.
Polamolu had made the trending topics list because moments before he has made a game winning interception and touchdown that sealed the Steelers Super Bowl berth.
I tweeted about the McGahee hit and then searched for Willis McGahee on Twitter where new Tweets began posting nearly every second.
Willis McGahee Twitter
After several minutes I went back to the Twitter Search page and refereshed my browser.
By 9:18 searches for Willis McGahee had become the fourth most searched for term in Twitter’s Trending Topics.
Total elapsed time to make Twitter’s Trending Topics list? 10 Minutes.
Trending Topics Willis McGahee 9:18 PM CST
An aside: Haven’t the NFL and the Baltimore Ravens also missed a golden opportunity to reach and connect with their fans further in real time via Twitter?
I searched for the NFL and Ravens and couldn’t seem to locate their Twitter accounts.
I was able to locate the Utah Jazz address but theirs was the only professional sports team I could find with a Twitter account.
Surely there are other professional sports teams with Twitter accounts.
Shouldn’t Professional sports leagues like the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) and each of their respective teams have a “Chief Twitter Officer” a person or department in charge of developing and executing a strategy for using Twitter to further reach and connect with their league’s fan base?
Maybe one day they will….
Twitter has got quite a jump on Google Trends vis-a-vis its near real time “reporting” of the events surrounding the US Airways plane crash out of New York’s LaGuardia airport into the Hudson River.
In fact Google Trends is still showing four hour old data which predates the plane crash and thus doesn’t include any searches for US Airways, New York’s LaGuardia let alone Hudson River, plane or crash.
Google Trends
On the other hand, Twitter’s “Trending Topics” which is Twitter’s version of the Zeitgeist is topped by searches related to the Hudson River plane crash.
Twitter’s top searches at the moment include Hudson River, US Airways, New York’s Hudson and LaGuardia.
Twitter Trending Topics
Searching Twitter’s Trending topics doesn’t require having a Twitter account and its a great tool for tapping into yet another level of public consciousness.
Via Twitter and Mahalo: Photos of the US Airways plane in the Hudson River.
Trending topics @ Twitter today include the term “Shorty Awards”.
According to ShortyAwards.com: the Shorty Awards will honor the world’s top Twitterers – those who have produced the best content in 140 characters or less during 2008 on Twitter.
Shorty Awards
I guess this post won’t qualify…
How to participate in the 2008 Shorty Awards:
To nominate someone for a Shorty Award, use form on this site, or send a tweet similar to this: @shortyawards I nominate @someone in category #news because… (but write something of your own).
The text of the tweet is completely up to you. As long as it contains @shortyawards @someone #category you can be as creative with the rest as you like.
You actually have to write something. Just submitting the default tweet doesn’t count.
It will be interesting to see how the (first annual?) Shorty Awards turn out.
There are 25 subject categories for nominations including the catchall category: “Other”.
Shorty Award Categories
The organizers of the Shorty Awards probably didn’t anticipate the “Other” category would quickly be commandeered by Twittwits to establish less than desirable subject categories like evilgenius and douche to describe and nominate top Twitterers.
While the 24 category winners will probably be excited to learn of their victories, the “Other” category winners probably won’t be tweeting about theirs.
Shorty Award Top Nominees
For more information visit ShortyAwards.com
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