Twitter has revealed its top Australian retweets for 2014.
As you might expect, celebrities’ musings and the recent death of Phil Hughes generated the most shares – or ‘retweets’ – of messages by Australian users of the ubiquitous social media platform.
The retweeting of a celebrity’s post might simply be seen as a reflection of the popularity and fame of the figure with their fans and ‘followers’, or perhaps just the social media nous of the celebrity’s press agent.
However, Twitter’s power to capture the zeitgeist and help unite a nation has been demonstrated in recent weeks over the Phil Hughes tragedy – the #putoutyourbats campaign to mark the cricketer’s passing was born and carried on Twitter.
The most popular Aussie hashtag this year though was #auspol; short for ‘Australian politics’ and commonly attached to news stories about Aussie pollies by us media types.
1) Oh Lorde, the #1 Aussie retweet is of course by a Kiwi
i find this curious – two photos from today, one edited so my skin is perfect and one real. remember flaws are ok 🙂 pic.twitter.com/PuRhxt2u2O
— Lorde (@lordemusic) March 31, 2014
2) Cody Simpson flexes his muscles
let’s go! pic.twitter.com/azZZk5LU4a — Cody Simpson (@CodySimpson) July 25, 2014
3) Iggy Azalea’s lollipop kid
Me in the car when I hear my own song https://t.co/5NTERrjoXW — IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) June 2, 2014
4) Rebel Wilson’s sequins
WE’RE BACK PITCHES #PitchPerfect2 pic.twitter.com/NTQzOBJeS7
— Rebel Wilson (@RebelWilson) November 19, 2014
5) Hugh Jackman throwing his support behind his compatriots’ US conquest
Mates @5SOS have an awesome night! Congrats on your first headline arena show in Phoenix, AZ. — Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) November 14, 2014
6) Big Russell Crowe and the word ‘Turkey’ don’t usually appear together .. unless he gets all political
Turkey has banned Twitter? That is a terrible decision. I don’t understand it. — Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) March 21, 2014
7) Cricket Australia breaking the news a nation dreaded about Phil Hughes
We are extremely sad to announce that Phillip Hughes has passed away at the age of 25 pic.twitter.com/RjIWcqlT2v — cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) November 27, 2014
8) Michael Clarke wishing the saddest of Birthday wishes to his fallen comrade, Phil Hughes
Happy bday bro. Will love you forever. It has been the hardest few days of my life. — Michael Clarke (@MClarke23) November 29, 2014
9) Also for Phil Hughes, this time we could forgive David Warner for using Twitter
Brothers in arms, RIP mate. I will always walk out there forever knowing your by my side. Love you BRAZ!! pic.twitter.com/Qxq2Jy0Pyx — David Warner (@davidwarner31) November 27, 2014
10) Mark Webber congratulates his successor on his maiden F1 win
Bloody fantastic @danielricciardo GP winner get in there!!! 1st of many….— Mark Webber (@AussieGrit) June 8, 2014