Dec 27, 2009

What Twitter and Facebook’s 2009 Trends Tell Us About Ourselves


December 27th, 2009 | by Ben Parr
The Social Analyst is a weekly column by Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space.
As the year comes to a close, several social media companies decided to take a look back and reflect on the events, people, technologies that captured our interest this year. Twitter took the first crack when it revealed the most discussed topics of 2009. Facebook was next when it released itsFacebook Memology for the year.
Both reports are interesting and have a lot of useful information, yet nobody’s really taken the time to analyze just what these trends mean. What did our society care about, and why? What scared the crap out of us? How were our tastes different this year than they were last year?

While I could take days analyzing trending topics (weeks if you give me the raw data), I only have so much time for this column. This is why I wanted to share with you some of my conclusions about this year’s trend data from Facebook and Twitter.

First, A Recap of Facebook and Twitter’s Top Trends of 2009


Before you start reading this week’s column, please make sure to take a good, long look at this year’s top trends for Facebook and Twitter.
First, Twitter’s 2009 trending topics:





Here are Facebook’s top status trends:






1. Diseases (Swine Flu) Scare the Hell Out of Us


The #3 trend on Facebook? Swine Flu. The #2 and #6 news trends on Twitter? Swine Flu. The #4 Hashtag on Twitter in 2009? Yep, you guessed it, #swineflu. When it first burst onto the scene, our propensity for panic took over. We questioned if this was the next epidemic, reminiscent of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic that killed 50 to 100 million people.





As we all now know, we dodged a bullet, for H1N1 proved not to be any more deadly than most common flu variants. It still is a dominant discussion topic today though, as H1N1 has spread across the world. The CDC estimates that nearly 50 million Americans have contracted H1N1 and killed 10,000. There is a reason why it was the biggest long-term story of the year.

2. Want a Blockbuster Movie? Sci-fi/Fantasy Is the Way to Go


If you wanted to make a splash at the box office in 2009, you didn’t create an action thriller, a comedy, or a drama. No, you created a sci-fi or fantasy epic.
Out of the top ten Twitter trending movies, nine of them fell into the sci-fi or fantasy genres. Nine. The only one that doesn’t have anything to do with magic, vampires, weird suits, or aliens is Slumdog Millionaire. The only movie on the Facebook side that wasn’t sci-fi was The Hangover.





The box office numbers agree: Transformers and Harry Potter top the list with $402 million and $301 million total grosses each, with Twilight, Star Trek, Monsters Vs. Aliens, and X-Men all in the top ten 2009s grosses.
This was clearly the year of the sci-fi film. It’s even more fitting that Avatar is December 2009’s big film. Don’t expect this trend to let up over the next few years either: Twilight, Transformers, Star Trek, andHarry Potter all have a few sequels left in the tank (and a perfect market for my sci-fi novel).

3. Trends Reflect Differences Between Facebook and Twitter Users


First, let’s understand that Twitter and Facebook used different methodologies to come up with their top trends lists. Twitter’s top trends are likely based on words and phrases appeared the most as Twitter trending topics, while Facebook grouped together related phrases and put more emphasis on “bursts of activity” and percentage changes from 2008 to 2009.
Yet the result is still that we can see some stark differences between what Facebook and Twitter users like to do with their time and what’s on their minds. Here are some of my random observations:
- Facebook is still about personal connections: The fact that family ranks so high indicates that more mothers and fathers have joined the service, mostly to connect with their friends and their kids. The fact that religion popped up as a top trend supports this assertion.
- NFL dominated Fb and Twitter: The Super Bowl appeared on the top 2009 Twitter trend list not once, but twice. The Steelers were a top trend on Facebook.
- Facebookers like baseball, Twitter users like basketball? Well, the Yankees dominated the Facebook discussion just as much as the Steelers did, and on the Twitter side, the Lakers were the #2 sports trend and Koe Bryant was the #4 most discussed person in 2009. More likely, it’s just that basketball games have more tweetable moments than baseball games.
- The #IranElection Crisis was a singular event that Facebook didn’t have: This is probably because Twitter users potentially had the power to change the course of events in Tehran by helping their fellow users in Iran. It was a powerful message and one of Twitter’s watershed moments. Facebook definitely didn’t have an event that compared to it.
- How the hell is Lady Gaga not a top Twitter trend? Seriously, was Joe Wilson, A-Rod, and Chuck Norris more discussed than perhaps this year’s fastest rising music star? Maybe Facebook’s trend analysis was more accurate, or maybe Twitter users really just didn’t care about her. But they did care about Susan Boyle… very much.

4. This Year’s Big Technology Wasn’t Google Wave, It Was Twitter







If you look at the top technology trend on Twitter in 2009, you’ll find that Google Wave dominated the list. That makes sense – it was one of the most hyped and anticipated products of the year, and it still continues to gain attention (and requests for invites). Wave was groundbreaking technology, regardless of whether or not it goes mainstream.
Yet Google Wave wasn’t the technology of the year. Neither was Facebook, although I’d give it a very close second. No, it was Twitter and its emergence as a mainstream platform for communication. Even Facebook’s memology report acknowledges the microblogging service’s profound impact on society.
Think all the way back to December 2008. Do you remember what Twitter looked like then? It was a smaller group of early adopters tweeting back and forth, with a few stars like Ashton Kutcher thrown into the mix. It had only 4-5 million U.S. visitors back then.
Then Twitter broke through into the mainstream consciousness. Oprah, Ellen, Ashton vs. CNN, andquadruple digit growth made it the subject of intense media attention. Then media outlets and businesses started latching onto the platform when the realized that it was an incredibly powerful promotional platform and communication tool. Nearly every media outlet has one, as do many companies.
Twitter trends may not have picked itself up as a top trend, but it really was. It scared Facebook enough to change. It became a regular part of U.S. and world culture. Hell, Twitter was even the word of the year. Its momentum may be stalling now, but the 140 character revolution clearly dominated 2009.