When we look at sheer numbers of participants in hashtags like #WhatYouShouldKnowAboutMe or #ICantRespectYouIf both of which trended in NYC, it is clear that they’re extremely difficult to compete with. When analyzing why a topic did or did not trend, it is important to understand what its coming up against. An intuitive example: it is much harder to make a topic trend during the day in major US cities compared to night.

Is the secret a constantly-changing hashtag? For whatever reason, Twitter doesn’t give as much love to a topic that remains common over a long period of time, like #OccupyWallStreet. So it makes sense that if OWS wanted to increase influence over time, they get everyone to change the topic each week, building freshness into the approach in the process. Personal opinion: Twitter needs to get a human or ten involved in this process, because the current method makes the trending topics vary widely in quality.