#GoodFriday, #RoyalWedding, Music and Basketball: This week in Twitter
(CBS/What's Trending) Easter weekend topped the weekly Twitter Top 10 Trending Topics chart. Properly called the Easter Triduum, Christians observed three days of religious services beginning on Holy (or Maundy) Thursday night leading to up Easter Sunday services.
Although for many people, Easter is customarily a family holiday involving chocolate and colored eggs in baskets and Sunday dinners, the strongest trend on Twitter was not Happy Easter or Sunrise Service but #GoodFriday. The prominence of the somber Good Friday service on social media shows the global reach of Twitter as in many countries Friday services are customarily larger and involve public processions.
Indonesian & Malaysian fans of teen singer Justin Bieber caused him to reach the #2 spot this week when he toured these countries. Massive crowds came to airports and concert centers, if not with tickets then with tons of enthusiasm! Next countries for Bieber to conquer on his world tour? Australia and Japan.
Although What the Trend's charting period runs from Friday to the following Thursday, the buzz surrounding a certain wedding was powerful enough to place it in the weekly Top 10. Much of the trending had to do with television programs (such as Lifetime's film "William & Kate") that built up anticipation during the week for Friday's Royal Wedding.
NBA Playoffs continue to command strong attention in the United States and a move that particularly grabbed viewers' attention was a dunk by Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant over New Orleans Hornet Emeka Okafor in Game 5 of the series and the 4-0 sweep of the New York Knicks by the Boston Celtic at "Massacre Square Garden." As of this writing the conference semifinal brackets have been determined except for a spot to be occupied by the Memphis Grizzlies or the San Antonio Spurs. Expect interest on Twitter to peak the coming week while there are still a strong roster of teams playing and then to ebb a bit before the NBA Finals in June.
Justin Bieber wasn't the only musical artists whose fans propelled their name into the highest ranks of trends on Twitter as fans of the little-known London-based band The Jude caused their first single, "Ha Ha Goodbye" to trend for an astounding 18 hours. However, given the title of the song and the playful atmosphere on Twitter, the trend could have been used like a hashtag as an in-joke from users to their followers (example: "Ha Ha Goodbye, LeBrick James!").
A more spectacular feat was accomplished through a fan campaign when all four members of New Jersey rock band My Chemical Romance were simultaneously placed on Twitter's Top 10 for a time period ranging from 5-8 hours. An achievement like this, which I've rarely seen duplicated by marketing efforts or paid promotion of companies, involve several hundred thousand messages over the course of a day from fans across the world. Fan groups of South Korean boy bands and girl groups (like Super Junior, TVXQ, 2 PM, SNSD, UKiss, SHINee) have been particularly adept at getting their favorite bands to spontaneously trend, and it's clear other music lovers have been taking notes.
Next week, expect to see the Royal Wedding to once again appear in the Top 3 and for the NBA Playoffs to dominate sports talk over the NHL. While hockey fans are extremely loyal to their teams, the more wide-spread television coverage will cause basketball to triumph for another week.
Liz Pullen is a qualitative sociologist who analyzes Twitter trending topic patterns for What the Trend. She is also a columnist for What's Trending. Learn more about her here.