While on vacation, a friend of mine recommended I read Want to be Retweeted? Add Hashtags to Your Tweets! The article is rather interesting and looks at the #hashtags that led to the most ReTweets.
I have a collection of AFL related tweets that I update semi-regularly. More often than not, I use these for geographic related analysis. My AFL tweet collection has a series of issues though that make me hesitant to always draw definitive conclusions from it. These issues include:
- Incomplete tweet set for keywords: I only get what is available from Searchtastic.
- Incomplete tweet set based on keyword limitations: Even supposing I could get all the tweets related to a keyword, I can’t find every reference to the AFL as there are too many possible words that could reference the AFL and its clubs.
- Incomplete tweet set because of time: Some keywords were searched for earlier and some later. Not all keywords were looked at over the same period.
- Irrelevant tweets: Keywords like #gosaints may refer to the St. Kilda Saints or the New Orleans Saints. AFL may refer to the AFL-CIO, a union in the United States. Unless every tweet is examined, irrelevant tweets will remain in the data set.
These are major obstacles to doing any sort of content analysis for Twitter when specific subgroups are looked at. Many of these issues are ones that other researchers are likely to have too: You can’t get the complete data set, will include garbage data and may not be entirely timely.
That said, despite these limitations, I still wanted to know what are the most popular #hashtags for AFL related tweets and what type of hashtags are likely to be ReTweeted.
To get my dataset of Tweets, first I went to Searchtastic, ran a series of searches over the course of 6 weeks, and exported those results to Excel. I noted the keyword I searched for and the team that keyword is related to. The keyword searches that were run on Searchtastic during this period included: #afl, #aflbluestigers, #aflcatslions, #afldemonsswans, #afldogscats, #afldogsfreo, #afldogspower, #afleaglesblues, #aflfooty, #aflhawksdemons, #aflkangasbombers, #aflkangasfreo, #AFLPAQUIZ, #aflpiestigers, #aflpowercrows, #aflpowereagles, #aflsaintshawks, #aflswanshawks , #brisbanelions, #dreamteam, #footy, #fremantle, #freo, #freo AFL, #goblues, #gobombers, #Gocats, #gocrows, #gopies, #gosaints, #goswans, #NMFC, #northmelbourne, #sackermanis, #supercoach, #sydneyswans, #teamgws, #thekennel, #wafl, #westcoast afl, ackermanis sacked, ACT4GWS, Adelaide Crows, Adelaide_FC, afl Bombers, AFL GWS, AFL Magpies, afl pies, AFL Tony Lockett, Aker Bulldogs, Akermanis, akermanis dogs, akermanis gillard, Australian rules, blues afl, Brad Johnson, Brad Johnson AFL, Brady Rawlings, brisbane afl, Brisbane Lions, Brownlow Medal, Cameron Mooney cats, Carlton Blues, Chris Judd Carlton, Collingwood, collingwood AFL, Collingwood Magpies, crows afl, Damien Hardwick, DemonsHQ, Dockers AFL, eagles afl, eagles perth, Eric Mackenzie , Essendon afl, Essendon Bombers, etihad kilda, folau afl, folau israel, Fremantle Dockers, fremantle ruckman, GCFC, geelong cats, Gold Coast Suns, harry_o, Hawthorn Hawks, HawthornFC, Jason Akermanis, Jeff Kennett, Judd Blues, kilda, kilda AFL, kilda riewoldt, lions afl, Mark Harvey, mcg kilda, Melbourne Demons, milburn cats, Nathan van Berlo Crows, North Melbourne Kangaroos, PAFC, Peter Szental, Port Adelaide Power, portadelaidefc, Richmond Football, Richmond Tigers, Rodney Eade dogs, roos afl, sackermanis, spoon eagles, spoon lions, spoon tigers, spoon wce, swans afl, swans footy, swans ruckman, Sydney Swans, tigers afl, Travis Johnstone, Trent Cotchin, WCE AFL, West Coast Eagles, and Western Bulldogs. These keywords represent all teams and often include multiple keywords for them.
The next step was to remove all duplicate tweets. As some tweets contain multiple keywords and some searches were run more than once over that 6-week time period, that possibility existed. To do this, three columns were copy and pasted to a new worksheet: Username, Tweet and In Reply To. On Excel, I did this using Filter -> Advanced Filter -> Unique records only. This process took the total tweets from 8,523 to 5,427.
The third step was to identify all the hash tags used in this data set. To do this, I copy and pasted all the tweets to Notepad. I ran a find and replace for [space]# and replaced with [tab]#. I copy and pasted these back, removed all cells that did not start with a #. After this was done, the data set was copy and pasted back to Notepad. Another find and replace was done, this time, [space] was replaced with [tab]. This was pasted back to excel and all cells that did not start with # were deleted. The completed list was 2,833 total hashtags used. Of these, 556 were unique. The following table counts their total usage:
| Hashtag | Total times used |
| #afl | 724 |
| #gosaints | 110 |
| #gocats | 84 |
| #DreamTeam | 79 |
| #aflswanshawks | 53 |
| #aflpiestigers | 51 |
| #aflpowereagles | 51 |
| #afldogscats | 47 |
| #aflfooty | 46 |
| #aflsaintshawks | 45 |
| #footy | 44 |
| #aflhawksdemons | 43 |
| #aflbluestigers | 41 |
| #aflcatslions | 41 |
| #afleaglesblues | 41 |
| #AFLPAQUIZ | 39 |
| #aflkangasfreo | 38 |
| #brisbanelions | 38 |
| #aflkangasbombers | 36 |
| #GoSwans | 35 |
| #Goblues | 34 |
| #ausvotes | 33 |
| #gopies | 31 |
| #ff | 28 |
| #afldogsfreo | 25 |
| #Essendon | 21 |
| #GoBombers | 20 |
| #afldemonsswans | 18 |
| #Fremantle | 17 |
| #SuperCoach | 17 |
| #afllionscrows | 16 |
| #adelaide | 15 |
| #aflpowercrows | 14 |
| #news | 13 |
| #thekennel | 12 |
| #football | 10 |
| #Sackermanis | 9 |
| #11BOYS | 8 |
| #afllionssaints | 8 |
| #AUG21STCLUBVENUS | 8 |
| #Blues | 8 |
| #collingwood | 8 |
| #GUAPGANG | 8 |
| #Hawks | 8 |
| #HNG | 8 |
| #Lions | 8 |
| #Australia | 7 |
| #Dockers | 7 |
| #fb | 7 |
| #freo | 7 |
| #sports | 7 |
| #wce | 7 |
| #aker | 6 |
| #jobs | 6 |
| #lost | 6 |
| #NMFC | 6 |
| #ABC | 5 |
| #aflbluesdogs | 5 |
| #Chelsea | 5 |
| #Eng | 5 |
| #NorthMelbourne | 5 |
| #pafc | 5 |
| #wafl | 5 |
| #aflbombersblues | 4 |
| #aflfreoswans | 4 |
| #akermanis | 4 |
| #blog | 4 |
| #bombers | 4 |
| #Bulldogs | 4 |
| #DOPEVIDEOALERT!! | 4 |
| #fail | 4 |
| #GOPIES! | 4 |
| #gopies!! | 4 |
| #GOSAINTS! | 4 |
| #gws | 4 |
| #pies | 4 |
| #sport | 4 |
| #worldcup | 4 |
| #aflcatshawks | 3 |
| #aflcrowscats | 3 |
| #afleagleslions | 3 |
| #argyleman | 3 |
| #beer | 3 |
| #bj008 | 3 |
| #Crows | 3 |
| #dogs | 3 |
| #dss10 | 3 |
| #footyshow | 3 |
| #Freelance | 3 |
| #Gillard | 3 |
| #goldcoast | 3 |
| #Light | 3 |
| #Melbourne | 3 |
| #plymouth | 3 |
| #sagreat | 3 |
| #sydneyswans | 3 |
| #tcot | 3 |
| #travel | 3 |
| #wa | 3 |
| #WORDPRESS | 3 |
| #17Julay | 2 |
| #afl: | 2 |
| #AFLCIO | 2 |
| #aka | 2 |
| #akermanis, | 2 |
| #alp | 2 |
| #Apple | 2 |
| #AstonVilla | 2 |
| #BERBATOV | 2 |
| #brisbane | 2 |
| #Carlton | 2 |
| #CarltonFC | 2 |
| #CATS | 2 |
| #CFL | 2 |
| #Chargers | 2 |
| #Chile | 2 |
| #Cousins | 2 |
| #DREAMTEAM!!! | 2 |
| #DT | 2 |
| #Eagles | 2 |
| #economist | 2 |
| #FERGUSON | 2 |
| #FollowFriday | 2 |
| #footyfriday | 2 |
| #gno | 2 |
| #GOBLUES! | 2 |
| #goCats! | 2 |
| #GOCROWS | 2 |
| #gosaints. | 2 |
| #Hamburg | 2 |
| #Health | 2 |
| #Idontthinkso | 2 |
| #Illegal | 2 |
| #job | 2 |
| #kentucky | 2 |
| #lastfm | 2 |
| #lp’s | 2 |
| #magpies | 2 |
| #mofo | 2 |
| #Monday | 2 |
| #monkbeer | 2 |
| #NBA | 2 |
| #New | 2 |
| #Obesity | 2 |
| #online | 2 |
| #P2 | 2 |
| #ROONEY | 2 |
| #Soccer | 2 |
| #Sportal | 2 |
| #suns | 2 |
| #Sydney | 2 |
| #TeamFollowBack | 2 |
| #Þ¹ Óù²_ | 2 |
| #thefootyshow | 2 |
| #throughandthrough | 2 |
| #Tigers | 2 |
| #TT | 2 |
| #WhoDat | 2 |
| # | 1 |
| #011 | 1 |
| #1 | 1 |
| #1, | 1 |
| #15 | 1 |
| #17 | 1 |
| #2. | 1 |
| #2010 | 1 |
| #3 | 1 |
| #3DAL | 1 |
| #6 | 1 |
| #6insolidaity | 1 |
| #7 | 1 |
| #ABCnews24 | 1 |
| #adelaide, | 1 |
| #adversity | 1 |
| #af… | 1 |
| #AFL! | 1 |
| #AFL, | 1 |
| #afl. | 1 |
| #Aflac | 1 |
| #aflbulldogscats | 1 |
| #aflcatspies | 1 |
| #aflcionow | 1 |
| #afldemonsbombers | 1 |
| #afldemonsswans. | 1 |
| #afldogscats101 | 1 |
| #afldogskangas | 1 |
| #afldogspower | 1 |
| #afleaglesfreo | 1 |
| #AFLfootyshow | 1 |
| #aflhawksdogs | 1 |
| #aflordapele | 1 |
| #AFLPA | 1 |
| #AFLPAQUIZ. | 1 |
| #aflpiestigers. | 1 |
| #aflsaintshawks. | 1 |
| #afrodigital | 1 |
| #akergate. | 1 |
| #Akermanis. | 1 |
| #akermankiss | 1 |
| #Albania | 1 |
| #A-League | 1 |
| #alfsaintshawks | 1 |
| #AlfStewart | 1 |
| #allday | 1 |
| #AllieGentry | 1 |
| #annoyingquestion | 1 |
| #Argyle | 1 |
| #ArizonaFallLeague | 1 |
| #Art | 1 |
| #Astros | 1 |
| #AUG28THHIGHLANDPARK | 1 |
| #aussiemigration | 1 |
| #Autocar | 1 |
| #avidfan | 1 |
| #BagelTuesday | 1 |
| #bankshowdown | 1 |
| #Barcelona | 1 |
| #Basketball | 1 |
| #batman | 1 |
| #BBB | 1 |
| #BBB, | 1 |
| #bcfc | 1 |
| #BEATthebotssss | 1 |
| #beenthere | 1 |
| #Belgium | 1 |
| #BELIEVE | 1 |
| #BENNY | 1 |
| #betchaknowem | 1 |
| #beu | 1 |
| #BigFooty | 1 |
| #blessings | 1 |
| #bmb | 1 |
| #boomers | 1 |
| #Bordeaux | 1 |
| #boulen10? | 1 |
| #breakuplines | 1 |
| #Bremen | 1 |
| #Briggswentdownlike | 1 |
| #BrisbaneLions! | 1 |
| #BrisbaneLions. | 1 |
| #broncos | 1 |
| #brugerdisken | 1 |
| #Brumbies | 1 |
| #caa | 1 |
| #cannes | 1 |
| #Canterbury-Bankstown | 1 |
| #carnbombers | 1 |
| #Celtic | 1 |
| #CERN | 1 |
| #CERTIFIED | 1 |
| #championship | 1 |
| #Cheetahs | 1 |
| #chi | 1 |
| #cliffhanghaunters | 1 |
| #Climate | 1 |
| #CNNHeroes. | 1 |
| #cocaine | 1 |
| #Coffee | 1 |
| #Collingwood. | 1 |
| #Collingwood: | 1 |
| #collingwoodfc | 1 |
| #Colombia | 1 |
| #Conservation | 1 |
| #conservative. | 1 |
| #cop15 | 1 |
| #Corvette | 1 |
| #cowboys | 1 |
| #coworking | 1 |
| #crazyideas | 1 |
| #cubs | 1 |
| #deals | 1 |
| #deetrain!) | 1 |
| #defense | 1 |
| #Demetriou | 1 |
| #dicaduca | 1 |
| #diet | 1 |
| #doublestandard | 1 |
| #draft | 1 |
| #draw365 | 1 |
| #DREAMTEAM- | 1 |
| #DREAMTEAM! | 1 |
| #DREAMTEAM!!!!! | 1 |
| #DREAMTEAM!!!!!!! | 1 |
| #DREAMTEAM!!!!!!!!! | 1 |
| #DREAMTEAM!GET | 1 |
| #dreamteam(u | 1 |
| #DreamTeam, | 1 |
| #dreamteam..like | 1 |
| #dreamteam2010 | 1 |
| #dreamteam2010(Ur | 1 |
| #drmtm | 1 |
| #druggies | 1 |
| #Duck | 1 |
| #duh | 1 |
| #duisburg | 1 |
| #dumb | 1 |
| #Eagles. | 1 |
| #ecommerce | 1 |
| #ecommretail | 1 |
| #EdeActueel | 1 |
| #efficiënt | 1 |
| #elmundial | 1 |
| #elvisfest | 1 |
| #ems | 1 |
| #emt | 1 |
| #England | 1 |
| #epic | 1 |
| #EquipedelaRêve | 1 |
| #ESPN3: | 1 |
| #everyday | 1 |
| #everyoneshappy | 1 |
| #excitedtweet | 1 |
| #faic | 1 |
| #fanniemae | 1 |
| #fascinating | 1 |
| #fat | 1 |
| #FCTwente | 1 |
| #FcukFranklin | 1 |
| #fd10p2m | 1 |
| #Fev | 1 |
| #FFGLBS | 1 |
| #FIFA | 1 |
| #fireupdons | 1 |
| #fitness | 1 |
| #flag | 1 |
| #flagship | 1 |
| #flash | 1 |
| #Flight | 1 |
| #flotilla | 1 |
| #FLYSTLYE | 1 |
| #FollowNow | 1 |
| #footyclassified | 1 |
| #footyOne | 1 |
| #footyshow. | 1 |
| #footyteammovies | 1 |
| #forçafluminense | 1 |
| #FoxFooty | 1 |
| #Foxtel | 1 |
| #free | 1 |
| #Freelancer | 1 |
| #freeweezy | 1 |
| #freo. | 1 |
| #freshen | 1 |
| #FridayFwit. | 1 |
| #fromtheouter | 1 |
| #Fuckem %- %( |
1 |
| #fuckyeah | 1 |
| #Gabon | 1 |
| #gallery: | 1 |
| #game | 1 |
| #Gaza | 1 |
| #GCFC | 1 |
| #Geelong | 1 |
| #GeelongCats | 1 |
| #GER, | 1 |
| #GERONIMO | 1 |
| #GGMU | 1 |
| #GOAT | 1 |
| #GoBears | 1 |
| #goBears! | 1 |
| #GOBLUES. | 1 |
| #GOCHELSEA | 1 |
| #GOGIANTS | 1 |
| #gopies!!! | 1 |
| #GoSaints!! | 1 |
| #gosaintsFC | 1 |
| #gostkilda | 1 |
| #GoSwans! | 1 |
| #GoSwans!!! | 1 |
| #gothepies | 1 |
| #green, | 1 |
| #GroenWerkt | 1 |
| #GUCCI | 1 |
| #guitar | 1 |
| #Haiku | 1 |
| #haiti: | 1 |
| #HamOnt | 1 |
| #handig | 1 |
| #Hanley. | 1 |
| #HardMan | 1 |
| #harry-o | 1 |
| #hawks#Hawthorn#AFL | 1 |
| #Hawthorn | 1 |
| #hcr, | 1 |
| #healthybusiness, | 1 |
| #healthyliving | 1 |
| #hiring | 1 |
| #History | 1 |
| #hnw | 1 |
| #Hockey | 1 |
| #HOLIDAY | 1 |
| #hollin | 1 |
| #homepark | 1 |
| #hotels | 1 |
| #HTC | 1 |
| #humor | 1 |
| #iConfess | 1 |
| #i’dliketoseethat! | 1 |
| #ihatecollingwood | 1 |
| #ihatequotes | 1 |
| #ihaveadream | 1 |
| #IloveagoodConspiracryTheory | 1 |
| #imabitscared | 1 |
| #immaturelittleboy | 1 |
| #in | 1 |
| #inception, | 1 |
| #IndianapolisColts | 1 |
| #Insiders: | 1 |
The next step was to count the total @ replies and hashtag uses. To do this, all the unique tweets were copied to a new worksheet. A filter was created to list all tweets that did not include an @ sign. These tweets were deleted. This brought the total tweets from 5,427 to 1,844. The next step was to create a filter to show all tweets that did not include a #. These tweets were then deleted. This brought the total Tweets down to 832. The next step was to look remove tweets that did not contain “RT @”, “RT:@”, “retweeting @”, “retweet @”, “via @”, “thx @”, “HT @”, or “r @”. This leaves 458 tweets that are retweets that contain hash tags.
The same process was conducted to count the hash tags that was used for all hash tags and RT @. The following list was created of people who were the most ReTweeted (or mentioned in the ReTweeted tweet) where the tweets contained #hashtags and the #hashtag totals for ReTweets. These were then totaled and counted, resulting in the following table:
| Hashtag | Count | ReTweeted | Count |
| #GOSAINTS | 37 | @afl | 44 |
| #DreamTeam | 36 | @Carlton_FC | 24 |
| #GoCats | 26 | @stkildafc | 23 |
| #AFL | 25 | @hawthornfc | 16 |
| #afleaglesblues | 21 | @Essendon_FC | 15 |
| #pafc | 20 | @Geelong_FC | 12 |
| #aflkangasbombers | 19 | @sydneyswans | 12 |
| #aflpiestigers | 18 | @iamdiddy | 10 |
| #aflsaintshawks | 18 | @Richmond_FC | 9 |
| #aflswanshawks | 17 | @AFLPA | 8 |
| #ausvotes | 12 | @Adelaide_FC | 7 |
| #aflpowereagles | 10 | @JuliaGillard | 7 |
| #AflKANGASfreo | 9 | @northkangaroos | 7 |
| #brisbanelions | 9 | @_the_kennel_ | 6 |
| #NMFC | 8 | @bigmacvikings | 6 |
| #sackermanis | 8 | @Collingwood_FC | 6 |
| #thekennel | 8 | @dizzyyet | 6 |
| #Adelaide | 7 | @redcafesd | 6 |
| #aflcatslions | 7 | @seanpaull | 6 |
| #afllionssaints | 7 | @aflcio | 5 |
| #aflhawksdemons | 6 | @Gottrocks | 5 |
| #AFLPAQUIZ | 6 | @myfabolouslife | 5 |
| #aflpowercrows | 6 | @PAFC | 5 |
| #11BOYS | 5 | @triplemfooty | 5 |
| #GoBombers | 5 | @AFLStatsGuys | 4 |
| #GoPies | 5 | @AveStarLJ | 4 |
| #P2 | 5 | @Bickys | 4 |
| #tcot | 5 | @Bigdroppunt | 4 |
| #travel | 5 | @Blonde_Cheeks | 4 |
| #afldemonsswans | 4 | @CatsInsider | 4 |
| #fremantle | 4 | @crowdiegal | 4 |
| #gopies!! | 4 | @DemonsHQ | 4 |
| #goswans | 4 | @DjPaniic | 4 |
| #lions | 4 | @Fremantle_FC | 4 |
| #soccer | 4 | @jletti | 4 |
| #tags: | 4 | @JOEYCRACKTS | 4 |
| #throughandthrough | 4 | @SENNews | 4 |
| #afldogsfreo | 3 | @tabloidterror | 4 |
| #aker | 3 | @tedwards2 | 4 |
| #akermanis | 3 | @THEjennykim | 4 |
| #AUG21STCLUBVENUS | 3 | @themonkbeer | 4 |
| #beer | 3 | @tjrharley | 4 |
| #ecfc | 3 | @aburt | 3 |
| #ENG | 3 | @charlenemay | 3 |
| #FF | 3 | @drwarwick | 3 |
| #GUAPGANG | 3 | @Footyfree | 3 |
| #HNG | 3 | @fromtheouter | 3 |
| #monkbeer | 3 | @garethdn | 3 |
| #sewelliscool | 3 | @mydogateart | 3 |
| #SydneySwans | 3 | @NikkiRoks | 3 |
| #WhoDat | 3 | @pluke17 | 3 |
| #worldcup | 3 | @rachii_10 | 3 |
| #aflbluestigers | 2 | @rickyrozay | 3 |
| #afleagleslions | 2 | @RTTF_AU | 3 |
| #aflfooty | 2 | @StadiumMustard | 3 |
| #aka | 2 | @TLW3 | 3 |
| #argyleman | 2 | @trmash | 3 |
| #bj008 | 2 | @afletch5 | 2 |
| #bulldogs | 2 | @AFLNewsWire | 2 |
| #dogs | 2 | @AlexBrink10 | 2 |
| #DOPEVIDEOALERT!! | 2 | @alexhart7 | 2 |
| #dreamteam2010 | 2 | @andrewbolt | 2 |
| #footy | 2 | @angiemartinez | 2 |
| #footyfriday | 2 | @annielin | 2 |
| #footyshow | 2 | @BradJohnson6 | 2 |
| #Fuckem %- %( |
2 | @BrigandLehmo | 2 |
| #Gillard | 2 | @brotheramos | 2 |
| #GoBears | 2 | @CalAthletics | 2 |
| #Goblues | 2 | @catsman09 | 2 |
| #Illegal | 2 | @ChristophHewett | 2 |
| #lp | 2 | @DaRealRoot | 2 |
| #nowplaying | 2 | @Diamonds_Pearlz | 2 |
| #plymouth | 2 | @DreamTeamatl_TK | 2 |
| #putthatinyourpipeandsmokeit | 2 | @DT_13 | 2 |
| #ROCGiRLs | 2 | @EdMorrissey | 2 |
| #sagreat | 2 | @emmat18 | 2 |
| #supercoach | 2 | @EssendonBomber | 2 |
| #thefootyshow | 2 | @FakeWoosha | 2 |
| #TwoDat | 2 | @globoesportecom | 2 |
| #wce | 2 | @HaroldKuepers. | 2 |
| #1, | 1 | @hawthornfc15 | 2 |
| #accommodation | 1 | @iAmRozayyy | 2 |
| #aflak | 1 | @j_carroll7 | 2 |
| #aflcrowscats | 1 | @JAE_MILLZ | 2 |
| #afldogscats | 1 | @jasminewright96 | 2 |
| #aflfreoswans | 1 | @jazzpafc | 2 |
| #AFLPA | 1 | @jeeziiroqk | 2 |
| #alp | 1 | @jimmywa11 | 2 |
| #Argyle | 1 | @jmf27614 | 2 |
| #Art | 1 | @jonboy79 | 2 |
| #bankshowdown | 1 | @jonpierk | 2 |
| #BELIEVE | 1 | @jrwilliams22 | 2 |
| #BENNY | 1 | @JsMiLeZ10 | 2 |
| #BERBATOV | 1 | @kaatieee27 | 2 |
| #BigFooty | 1 | @keithpitty | 2 |
| #BLOG | 1 | @Ladder_) | 2 |
| #boomers | 1 | @LEGITBOSS | 2 |
| #Briggswentdownlike | 1 | @letoyaluckett | 2 |
| #Celtic | 1 | @Lizziemcbizzie | 2 |
| #CERTIFIED | 1 | @M3lizza | 2 |
| #CFL | 1 | @milo317 | 2 |
| #Chile | 1 | @MMMGUNNA | 2 |
| #Collingwood. | 1 | @MRS_MERCHANT | 2 |
| #CRS | 1 | @mstiffington | 2 |
| #cubs | 1 | @NeL_DTF | 2 |
| #deetrain! | 1 | @nick_wade | 2 |
| #draw365 | 1 | @NICKIMINAJ | 2 |
| #DT | 1 | @NiKKi_E13 | 2 |
| #Essendon | 1 | @noisyinstrument | 2 |
| #FERGUSON | 1 | @plymouthcc | 2 |
| #Flecoat | 1 | @ranyunfei | 2 |
| #Flight | 1 | @reggie_bush | 2 |
| #FLYSTLYE | 1 | @ruanji | 2 |
| #FollowNow | 1 | @SarahStanley | 2 |
| #Football | 1 | @SharinaBurns | 2 |
| #GERONIMO | 1 | @shelleyjames | 2 |
| #GGMU | 1 | @ShunnyBun | 2 |
| #glennbeck | 1 | @StadiumHero | 2 |
| #GOGIANTS | 1 | @SuadeMusic | 2 |
| #gop | 1 | @TalentedInk | 2 |
| #GoPies! | 1 | @TalkingCarlton | 2 |
| #GoSaints!!!! | 1 | @tech45cast | 2 |
| #gosaintsFC | 1 | @tgrant20 | 2 |
| #gostkilda | 1 | @the_tony | 2 |
| #green, | 1 | @TheCONDO | 2 |
| #GUCCI | 1 | @therealsmoir | 2 |
| #haiti: | 1 | @TheRealYungBerg | 2 |
| #Hawks | 1 | @TheVoyuer | 2 |
| #healthybusiness | 1 | @thisgirlrox | 2 |
| #healthyliving | 1 | @thisischile | 2 |
| #hiring | 1 | @thisisScoMan | 2 |
| #HOLIDAY | 1 | @timvl | 2 |
| #HTC | 1 | @tip66 | 2 |
| #ihaveadream | 1 | @tkpleslie | 2 |
| #in | 1 | @TrendsMelbourne | 2 |
| #Inter | 1 | @UnitedWayTC | 2 |
Based on this sample, (because the whole of the population of AFL tweets is not available and cannot the total cannot be counted to determine the representative value of the sample) the most RTed #hashtag in a Tweet related to the AFL is #gosaints. #dreamteam comes in second. #gocats comes in third. #afl comes in fourth.
The #gosaints tag is popular and the team’s official account has encouraged its use. More recently, New Orleans Saints fans have used it as the NFL pre-season has started. #dreamteam is one of the two most popular AFL fantasy leagues and those fantasy leagues are big into fostering community. Beyond these top four, the most popular tags tend to involve specific match ups. If all tags related to match ups had been included around the time that the games took place, it is highly possible more would be on that list.
In terms of who gets RTed and mentioned in ReTweets, official accounts dominate: The AFL, Carlton, St. Kilda, Hawthorn, the Bombers, Geelong and the Swans. The first non-team account to appear is P. Diddy and he is followed by a number of influential Australian social media people. The next person / non-official AFL account to appear is Julia Gillard. AFL players do not appear to be ReTweeted en masse when compared to their club sides. This isn’t to say that people don’t actively read and follow them. If looking at ReTweets without #hashtags, @harry_o would appear on top with 50 mentions. It is probable that clubs are using #hashtags and players are not; there could be a digital cultural awareness divide between the two.
A copy of the data and some of my step by step process making it workable can be found at RTAFL.xls. I find the whole thing really interesting. If anyone has any tools to make dataming easier or has a suggestion for additional research in this area, let me know as I’d love to hear it.