Twitter Trends [India] – What do they really mean?

Let us look at what is considered as one of the most important metrics in the current social media world. Twitter Trends.

What Twitter wants it to mean – A top 10 list of most important topics being discussed or talked about on Twitter related to India and in India at any given point of time.

What it actually means – A top 10 list of keywords and hashtags where social media agencies, political parties and PR companies have begged, borrowed, stolen or outrightly manipulated data and tweets to make their campaign on the top 10.

How customers look at them – My campaign didn’t trend on Twitter. It didn’t work.

How agencies look at them – So much engagement, so much authentic growth. But it didn’t trend. Client won’t be happy.

How politicians, movie stars look at them – Just give hashtag to my media center with 500 people and send SMS to my 20K supporters who have pledged to do 2 tweets each on any campaign I want to trend.

Being an avid researcher on Twitter, we can confirm that more than 5 out of the 10 trends are manipulated and forced.

Unless there is more control put in to ensure authenticity, this notion of Twitter trends being the de-facto standard for true conversations or for the success of a campaign will fade away. As of now, a lot of marketeers are starting to move towards more relevant metrics.

So, how do you look at a Twitter Trend? Tweet and tell.