The Royal Wedding, the UK riots and The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE) were the top Facebook status update trends in the UK during 2011, Facebook has revealed.
Globally, the death of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden topped the list, followed by Packers win the Super Bowl, Casey Anthony found not guilty, actor Charlie Sheen, the death of Apple’s Steve Jobs, the Royal Wedding, the death of singer Amy Winehouse, video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, military operations beginning in Libya and Hurricane Irene.
According to the list provided by Facebook, in the UK the Royal Wedding topped the list of the most-mentioned status update trends of the year for 2011, capturing the conversation of 30m Brits using Facebook. During the Royal Wedding weekend, more than a million people in the UK used Facebook statuses to discuss the Royal Wedding in just 24 hours.
Kate Middleton led the way on her wedding day, with 131,385 mentions, followed by Prince William with 104,747. However, it was football star David Beckham’s arrival at the ceremony that led to a surge in discussion of the Royal Wedding in April – with 9,000 mentions of his name in just 20 minutes!
TOWIE topped the list for TV for 2011 and came in third. As millions followed the trials and tribulations of Mark, Arg and their Essex friends, many turned to Facebook to discuss the latest in the lives of the reality stars. This was undoubtedly helped by the community of more than 680,000 people who like The Only Way is Essex page on Facebook, as well as the programme’s inclusion of comments made by the fans throughout the ad breaks.
The programme also inspired a new addition to the British lexicon – with Joey Essex’s ‘reem’ catchphrase appearing at No 10. This time last year, ‘reem’ was not even in our vocabulary.
Facebook reflected the real-life conversations that communities were having across the UK in response to the shock of the UK riots. People continued to turn to Facebook in the aftermath of the riots to organise their communities to come together for the clean up – the two biggest groups set up to motivate operations and rally positively against the riots were huge, with more than 600,000 fans.
UK Top Ten 2011
1. Royal Wedding
2. UK Riots
3. TOWIE
4. Death of Amy Winehouse
5. Death of Osama bin Laden
6. Death of Muammar Gaddafi
7. Jessie J
8. Ed Sheeran
9. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
10. Reem
Top 5s
TV
1. TOWIE
2. Marchlands
3. Rastamouse
4. Frankie Cocozza of X Factor
5. Torchwood
Gadgets
1. LiveProfile
2. BBM
3. Android
4. Kindle
Film
1. Insidious
2. Anuvahood
3. Planet of the Apes
4. Smurfs
5. Tangled
Music
1. Amy Winehouse
2. Jessie J
3. Ed Sheeran
4. LMFAO
5. Skrillex
Sports
1. Marco Simoncelli
2. El Hadji Diouf
3. Novak Djokovic
4. Wladimir Klitschko
5. Mario Balotelli
