A Twitter Year

Just read this great piece in the New York Times about how...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:35:33 -0500

Just read this great piece in the New York Times about how Republican candidates have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon during the campaign for nomination. It’ll be surprising to anyone who still thought that Obama and the Democrats have cornered social media. But not if you saw this stat in A Twitter Year.

Further proof that anyone’s Twitter account can be hacked,...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:27:09 -0500

Further proof that anyone’s Twitter account can be hacked, as the Huffington Post found last night. Racist and homophobic tweets were sent out by the miscreants, but some of the account’s followers (judging by the comments above) were more amused than fooled.

If you want to make your account more (if not completely) hack-proof, make sure it’s set to always use HTTPS. But if the worst happens, you’re in good company: even @barackobama got back hacked in 2009.

Belatedly: here’s me talking about “A Twitter...

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:55:23 -0500

Belatedly: here’s me talking about “A Twitter Year” on NPR’s All Things Considered on New Year’s Eve.

Holy tweets, Batman! I was blown away when Beyonce rubbing her ...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:17:12 -0500

Holy tweets, Batman! I was blown away when Beyonce rubbing her pregnant belly at the MTV VMAs smashed the tweets per second record with an incredible 8,868.

But now, we have a new record. And it’s taken a bit of a leap…

A Twitter Year on Sky News, December 10th 2011

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 05:48:33 -0500

A Twitter Year on Sky News, December 10th 2011

@katebussmann's twinterview with @Riotcleanup

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 06:30:32 -0500

Praise for A TWITTER YEAR

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:58:19 -0500

‘If you’re already a member of the Twitterati, it’s a hilarious romp through the social networking site’s 140-character stars; if you’re a tweeting novice, consider this a passport to know-it-all status’ Easy Living

‘The perfect gift for the Twitter addict in your life’ Red

‘The story of 2011, told in tweets’ Sunday Times

‘The best hosts leave some smart reading material by the side of the guest bed, for insomniacs or early risers. What could be better – and funnier – than … the clever cataloguing of the past 12 months through the eyes of Twitter?’ Independent

Twitter's own review of the year

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:26:42 -0500

Twitter's own review of the year:

If you’ve already got a copy of A Twitter Year, you’ll be familiar lots of the stories and stats coming out in Twitter’s own #yearinreview. One that was new to me: the fact that #Egypt was the top trending topic of 2011.

(Check out UK Twitter’s blog for a list of British personalities who trended this year - and an honorable mention of my book!)

@KateBussmann's Interview with @ReallyVirtual

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 07:55:37 -0500

I went on the very nice Steve Vizard’s morning show on...

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 07:25:20 -0500

I went on the very nice Steve Vizard’s morning show on Melbourne Talk Radio last night… Yup, that’s what I meant to type.

A Twitter Year visits Australia's favourite breakfast show, Sunrise

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:40:25 -0500

A Twitter Year visits Australia's favourite breakfast show, Sunrise

A Twitter Year in today's Stylist

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:09:00 -0500

A Twitter Year in today's Stylist:

Check out my list of the year’s most powerful tweets in today’s Stylist Magazine, available at all good tube stations…

Coming soon... #Twinterview2011 with @ReallyVirtual

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:45:00 -0500

Thanks to everyone who followed the chat today with @DianaInHeaven. We’ll be posting the whole interview here soon. Come back on Wednesday 30th November at 1pm to see the next interview with @ReallyVirtual, the man who live-tweeted the capture of Osama bin Laden. And do tweet me your questions in the meantime…

UPDATE: check out the full #twinterview2011 with @DianaInHeaven here.

Stylist Magazine's favourite fictional Twitter feeds

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:06:10 -0500

Stylist Magazine's favourite fictional Twitter feeds:

I’m a particular fan of numbers 1 and 6. And for plenty more where that came from, check out A Twitter Year…

Lady Gaga set to hit 16m followers

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:15:00 -0500

By this time tomorrow, Lady Gaga will almost certainly have topped 16 million followers on Twitter - hanging on to the most-followed spot since she beat Britney Spears in August 2010.

This, despite all the best efforts of the ardent fans of number two, Justin Bieber.

Even more impressive? When my book, A Twitter Year, went to press, she hadn’t even hit 13 million.

UPDATE: Yup, she did it

The first person to tweet about the NYPD raid on the Occupy Wall...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:45:42 -0500

The first person to tweet about the NYPD raid on the Occupy Wall Street camp at Zuccotti Park? Questlove, of course - an hour and 22 minutes before the raid began. (Via the Gothamist.)

Announcing... the #twinterview2011 series

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 07:58:00 -0500

Each week until Christmas, I’ll be interviewing some of the Twitter stars who were in the headlines in 2011. We’ve got a very famous, very sweary dead princess, the musician who helped England rediscover its national pride in the wake of the riots, and a notorious comedian who threw a pie at a certain media mogul.

Use the hashtag #twinterview2011 to tweet your questions ahead of time, and click on it and follow me (@katebussmann) to watch the interview unfold live.

Here’s the schedule - hope you can join me!

23^rd November / 1.30pm GMT

@DianainHeaven

In life, we knew her as the demure princess of our hearts. In death, she’s foul-mouthed and hilarious, tweeting from above about Kate Middleton, Camilla and everyone who’s joined her on the other side this year.

30^th November / 1pm GMT

@ReallyVirtual

Meet Sohaib Athar, the IT consultant from Abbottabad, Pakistan who (unbeknownst to him) live-tweeted the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, on 2^nd May 2011, becoming an overnight Twitter celebrity, and providing a unique perspective on one of the year’s biggest stories.

7^th December / 1pm GMT

@riotcleanup

When the riots left a trail of destruction across London and the rest of the country in August 2011, musician Sam Duckworth created a Twitter account to help volunteers clear up the damage. In a matter of hours @riotcleanup had amassed 57,000 followers and the hashtag was trending worldwide.

14^th December / 1pm GMT

@JonnieMarbles

#splat. At the peak of the News of the World hacking scandal, Jonathan May-Bowles, aka comedian Jonnie Marbles, stole the headlines when he threw a shaving foam pie at Rupert Murdoch – moments after sending a tweet declaring his intentions.

A year ago today, Prince Charles’s official Twitter feed...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 07:37:00 -0500

A year ago today, Prince Charles’s official Twitter feed announced the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton - a taste of how modern the Royal Family is starting to become.

(For a peek at Kate’s style evolution, check out Vogue’s excellent photo gallery.)

Just came across this story about an awake temporal lobectomy...

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:17:00 -0500

Just came across this story about an awake temporal lobectomy (that’ll be brain surgery to you and me) that was live-tweeted a few weeks back. Let me know if you hear about someone else doing this - would have loved to have followed it live…

Photo

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 06:34:00 -0500