philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

The Top Five Trend-Setting Cities on Twitter

But in recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in the relationship between a network and the geography it is superimposed on. What role does geography play in the emergence and spread of trends? And which areas are trend setters and which are trend followers?

The results are revealing. They say most trends die away quickly–around 70 per cent of trends last only 20 minutes and only 0.3 per cent last more than a day.

Ferrara and co say they can see three distinct geographical regions that share similar trends–the East Coast, the Midwest and Southwest. It’s easy to imagine how trends arise at a low level and spread through the region through local links such as friends.

But these guys say there is also a fourth cluster of influential cities that also form a group where the emergence of trends is related. However, these place are not geographically related. They are metropolitan areas  such as Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Chicago and so on.

What links these places is not geography but airports, say Ferrara and co. Their hypothesis is that topics trend in these places because of the influence of air passengers. In other words, trending topics spread just like diseases.

The top five sources of trends are: Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Washington, Seattle and New York.

Read the full story here: http://www.technologyreview.com/view/520416/the-top-five-trend-setting-cities-on-twitter/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20131017