Twitter storms are described to be a ‘sudden peak in activity around a specific topic’. These ‘storms’ represent a topic that is either very popular or is being discussed around twitter by many users.
‘Hashtags’ are a cause of this where information is allowed to be collected and stored into statistics that expose to the world of twitter what people are talking about and are most interested about at that time of day. According to a research report by Precise, ‘2011- the year of the perfect twitter storm’ there are three different types of ‘twitter storm’ on the internet.
PERFECT TWITTER STORM?
The ideal ‘twitter storm’ is a story that starts on
Twitter and through a feedback loop with traditional press generates a
significant amount of attention across a comprehensive audience. The second
type is named ‘the storm in a teacup’. This is a story that generates a
moderately small amount of interest on Twitter but is picked up by a great
number of mainstream media outlets. The third type of ‘twitter storm’ is the
twitter only storm. This is essentially a story that sparks a significant
amount of messages and attention on twitter itself but receives no interest
from mainstream media sources. An example of this is when the boy band One
Direction’s singer Harry Styles lost his sunglasses and there was vast teenage
search to find them. As there is a gigantic fan base for him and the band on
twitter, this appealed to them however it would not be classed as news for the
mainstream, as it is catered to a niche audience. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/1a/e1/75/1ae175694c598d1a0427d3095e410b7d.jpg
A strong example of a twitter storm in its purest form
is the Topman t-shirt slogan controversy. The high streets male clothing shop
Topman began selling t-shirts with the slogans “Nice New Girlfriend. What Breed
is She?” and various others as the journalist Rubin at stylecaster.com
describes as ‘demeaning to women and make light of domestic violence. These
slogans resulted in a twitter outrage where people everywhere were voicing
their opinions on the matter and creating major awareness for the debatable
issue. Rubin went onto write in her article that ‘Outraged consumers and Topman
supporters alike took to the social media stage to voice their opinions. Tweets
such as Guardian‘s Life & Style’s, which reads “What was Topman thinking
with these T-shirts” flooded the internet, causing Topman to recall the shirts
and issue a public statement acknowledging the wave of negative feedback and
apologizing for the offensive slogans.’ The influence that twitter had over
this controversial subject, proves that it is in fact an extremely powerful
source within cultural issues and important matters and the power it has is
extremely quick and widespread.http://www.displayone.co.uk/image/data/album/TM_Chicpro_lg.jpg
An example of a mass twitter storm is the most retweeted (passed on)
photo on twitter. US President Barack Obama posted an image back in 2012 of him
hugging his wife after winning another term as president. Within 24 hours the
post had been retweeted more than 771,635 times, making it the most
widespread social-networking message in this time frame. However, in 2014,
Ellen DeGeneres posted a ‘selfie’ of her and various celebrities at the 86th
Oscars. This image went completely viral and took over the title of most
retweets, receiving ‘779,295 retweets in approximately half an hour’ (The
Guardian).
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1197860.1352268083!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_970/obama-twitter.jpg
