World-wide Twitter trend frenzy ushers in World Cup day

Twitter was abuzz with World Cup fever on Friday, with seven out of 10 of its trending topics highlighting the world football spectacle.

The trending topics, listed on the microblogging and social networking site, included #WC2010 #WorldCup #Bafana #SudAfrica #FIFAWorldCup #NelsonMandela.

One of the trending tags also referred to “Bafana” — in reference to the nickname of the South African national football squad “Bafana Bafana”, meaning “The Boys” in Zulu.

On Wednesday “Vuvuzela” quickly become a trending topic when South Africa and parts of the world celebrated the “Vuvuzela Moment” by blowing the local trumpet-like instruments in unison on noon that day.

The moment was tweeted by local and international stars including Shakira, Dutch Soccer Star Ryan Babel and a host of local personalities and DJs.

According to Fifa the Vuvuzela Moment had officially caused the “first ever” World Cup-related trending topic on Twitter.

The official Fifa World Cup (TM) Twitter account, FIFAWorldCupTM, with around 57 000 followers tweeted on Wednesday: “thank you South Africa” and claiming that “the first World cup related trending topic on twitter has arrived! the #Vuvuzela is a trending topic…”. Although a few tweeters were also quick to point out to Fifa that “Benni” and “Bafana” (player and South African national soccer squad nickname) had also previously trended.

See: Vuvuzela Moment causes ‘first-ever’ World Cup Twitter trending topic