Tweeting to Thousands: How Trending Topics Work

What is a trending topic?

A topic can be considered a trend when it is currently the most popular subject of a particularly high number of tweets. For example, #GuyFawkesPumpkin experienced a sudden spike of tweets in a particular country or area in the All Hallows’ Eve season. This topic will be listed down as the trending topic for some days before and after Halloween. As soon as the number of people tweeting about #GuyFawkesPumpkin goes down steadily, this topic will be struck from the list of Trending Topics.

There are three factors to be taken into account to determine whether a topic is trending or not:

1. Popularity of Tweets

The more people talking about the same subject, the more chance that subject will climb up the trend lists. The number of tweets has to be dynamic enough, which means there are sudden increases and gradual decreases of the number of people tweeting about a certain topic. Twitter identifies which topics are being talked right now than they were previously.

2. Diversity of Sources

The popularity has to be widespread. If only one area is talking about a topic, it will not make it to the Trending Topics list. There must be a diverse number of people from a large number of different cities or towns tweeting about the same subject, so it would be considered popular enough.

3. Novelty of the Topic

A topic has to be new, in order to top Twitter’s list. Twitter looks for the latest emerging topics, which is not necessarily the most popular topics at the moment. There should be a drastic increase of tweets over a certain topic with its growth reaching as far as possible to be calculated as a rising trend.