Twitter, #OccupyWallStreet’s Vascular System.

Brandon Oliver Smith, October 24 2011

At SMG, we often refer to Twitter as the vascular system of the social web, with the potential to spread ideas, news and opinions to all corners of the globe in near real-time. The most revolutionary ideas have the potential  to rally huge numbers of people behind a cause quickly and efficiently. 

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is the newest of these Twitter-enabled movements. From a single Adbusters blogpost on July 13th, Occupy has spread to include thousands of regional protests, which has led to millions of Tweets from around the globe.

This past weekend, Social Media Group provided the National Post with insights behind the OWS movement using English language Twitter data from September 17th until present day. The resulting geo-map of Tweets over time shows how the Occupy movement is quickly spreading across the globe.  

On week one of the protests, 11,379 Tweets were produced. 80% of which originated in the United States. By week two, the volume of Tweets had doubled, gaining traction in Canada, the UK, Czech Republic, and Denmark. By week five of the protests, countless viral objects were being created and shared around the world providing fuel for the OWS fire which by now includes a lengthly list new regional movements. Collectively, OWS and these new regional gatherings are now producing over 230,000 Tweets a week in more than 130 countries. 

If there was ever any uncertainty around Twitter’s power to spread the word, 2011’s revolutionary events undoubtedly prove the true potential of the service as a earth’s new circulatory system.