How to hack Twitter Trending Topics

How to get involved in Twitter Trending Topics?

When you sign in to your twitter account via web, on your dashboard, just below search form you have access to twitter trending topics. These terms are most talked about and mentioned keywords on twitter at the moment. Right now, some of those are Harry Potter, Spongebob and off course Michael Jackson. So, who decided what's trendy? Actually, you do, together with the rest of the community. It's an easy way to track popular or important events like #iranelection obviously is to many people.

Tweeting about trending topics can get you more attention from other twitter users, but also, be aware that more and more often twitter spam invades trending topics and you should be aware of this to understand why some tweets you see don't have anything to do with actual topic.



Is it possible to predict next trending topic and get involved early on to gain more of community attention? Some will say that you need special psychic abilities to predict future events, BUT there is a hack to do this in some cases. Off course, nobody couldn't predict Michael Jackson will become trending topic, but even you could predict Harry Potter will with every new movie, right? That's one way, to track previous trending topics and make conclusion about future ones.

Here is another good one. If you use Firefox you may have installed eQuake alert addon which warns you (shakes your browser) when new earthquake strikes. Few days ago, while I was doing my online stuff, FF shook so hard I though Earth is fallen apart! eQuake reported new strike near New Zealand with 8.2 magnitude which is a lot. Right that moment I tweeted about it. CNN reported same quake 6 minutes after me! Then I watched how New Zealand enters Trending Topics and goes up to second place, just below Harry Potter (it seems like Mr. Potter shakes the Planet with grater magnitude). Later I realized that some people reported the quake even before me, but I was one of first few and that made great experience.

What's your opinion? How would you predict next trending topic?