“Pretty Little Liars” leads Twitter’s 2011 list of Hot Television Topics

As part of its Year in Review, Twitter has compiled a list of 2011’s hottest topics as determined by user mentions on the microblogging site over the past year, divided into various categories.

In the television category, ABC Family’s hit series Pretty Little Liars was named the hottest topic on Twitter this year. This is probably no surprise, given how expertly the network and the show’s creative team have used Twitter as a marketing tool for the series.

As an ABC Family release pointed out in relation to this news –

Twitter Pretty Little Liars“Twitter is a staple of the Pretty Little Liars marketing mix. Show talent and producers often live tweet the episodes and evil doer, ‘A,’ known in the show for sending mysterious and revealing text messages, will sometimes ‘take over’ the show’s Twitter handle. ABC Family also often runs promotions like the #PrettyLittleShhh photo contest where users were asked to tweet pictures of themselves posing in the iconic ‘shhh’ pose from the show key art.”

Rounding out the Top 5 Hot Topics on Twitter in terms of television this year were Two and a Half Men, The Craigslist Killer (Lifetime original movie), Golden Globe Awards and People’s Choice Awards.

The Movies Hot Topics category was nearly dominated by superheroes, with Thor taking the top spot, followed by The Dark Knight Rises, X-Men: First Class, Fast Five and Green Hornet.

Under the Music Hot Topics on Twitter, we have the once-ubiquitous Rebecca Black and Friday, followed by Nate Dogg, FEMME FATALE, Gerry Rafferty and Gil Scott-Heron.

Twitter Hot Topics 2011: Twitter gives us Top Tens in the Actresses and Actors categories:

ACTRESSES
1. Elizabeth Taylor
2. Mila Kunis
3. Anne Hathaway
4. Raven Symone
5. Natalie Portman
6. Elisabeth Sladen
7. Jennifer Lopez
8. Nina Dobrev
9. Emma Watson
10. Fernanda Vasconcellos

ACTORS
1. Charlie Sheen
2. Macaulay Culkin
3. Ryan Dunn
4. Ricky Gervais
5. Pete Postlethwaite
6. Tracy Morgan
7. Jake Gyllenhaal
8. Ashton Kutcher
9. Colin Firth
10. James Franco

There are more categories on the site, and it’s fun to think back over the year and recall why these topics, titles and people were popular at various points. Some are obvious (death, controversy, big movie coming out), others a little more nebulous. That’s all part of the ever-shifting attention span of the human mind, and part of what makes Twitter not only such a fascinating platform to participate in, but also one in which you can enjoy sometimes just sitting back and “tweet watching.”