Banks and tech top Australia’s most tweeted brands in year dominated by #auspol
Politics and entertainment have dominated Twitter’s Australian traffic in 2018, with #auspol topping the Australian list of most tweeted hashtags, while #qanda and #libspill took the third and fourth spots.
The social media service’s annual round up saw last year’s most tweeted business, Australia Post, drop out of the top ten after the criteria was changed to put more emphasis on engagement. The change saw banks and tech companies dominate the list.
Topping the most engaged brands list was National Australia Bank, with ANZ and Commonwealth coming in third and ninth.
Of the tech brands, Xbox Australia took second place. Samsung and Telstra also made the top ten along with Apple – a brand which was notoriously indifferent to social media until recent times.
Rounding out the top ten brands were car maker Hyundai, Optus Sports and Hoyts Australia.
Entertainment and gaming also made the top lists, with Korean K-pop band BTS jumping from ninth to second place in the overall rankings while Fortnite made its first appearance in the top ten.
Speaking to Mumbrella about #auspol once again topping the rankings, Twitter Australia’s managing director, Suzy Nicoletti, told Mumbrella: “Of all the trends around the world, the #auspol hashtag speaks of how engaged Australians are.”
Nicoletti also praised the locals’ sense of humour when discussing the dumpster fire of Aussie politics, saying: “No-one does a meme like Australians.”
Sports featured twice in the list of the most popular hashtags of 2018 with #WorldCup and #ausopen both making the top ten. “Football is one of the most engaged sports on Twitter,” said Nicoletti.
In the entertainment sector, reality shows all followed the success of K-pop group BTS with Married At First Sight, Masterchef and My Kitchen Rules all making the sector’s top ten, which Nicoletti put down to networks becoming more savvy about how they use the social media platform to maintain viewer engagement.
The year’s ‘golden tweet’ – the Australian post that picked up the most engagement – came from @thomas_violence, with a comment on the tragic gun violence that rocked the US in 2018. The conversation-starting tweet was retweeted nearly 170,000 times.
