In general, not that many Twitter users are convinced of the value of a trending topic, at the moment at which I am typing this they are pretty legit, The X Factor show just wrapped and an act went through which is currently stimulating a lot of discussion, there are also a couple of NFL teams trending.
However, this isn’t always the case. Just last night there were a series of TT (Trending Topics) “just for fun” including #threewordsaftersex, whereby users add three extra words after the word “sex”. Nice.

So how do you manipulate a TT on Twitter? Can you start a TT on Twitter? How many Tweets does it take?
Buzzgain, the DIY PR people, have put together their thoughts on this, although these are probably somewhat outdated now, as there are more Twitter users. You can check out their facts and figures here.
All in all, creating a TT, or the formation of a TT is contingent on the following factors:
- Ruling out the competition – right at the end of an episode of The X Factor, American Idol or during a football game or election just isn’t going to cut it
- Making it somewhat newsworthy – GAGADAILY.COM (Lady Gaga’s biggest fansite) has a knack for getting this right at the time when a video from Lady Gaga is premiered or a song is released on iTunes, see #badromanceiTunes as an example – and yes they do enlist the help of @PerezHilton on occasion
- Getting the right people to Tweet it - the bigger the following the more likely you are to get re-Tweets
- Location of Twitter users (via Buzzgain) – this is a nature of time, but most twitter users are in coastal United States, Japan. If you wish to trend a topic on Twitter, during the timezone they are most active, you are better off talking about topics that interest them
In addition, it is always worth reading up on what #moonfruit did as a brand to maintain a TT, although these sort of stunts can get banned by Twitter themselves.











