Twitter | Twitter's Year In Review: The Top Tweets, Trends And Topics Of 2011

Twitter gained a number of notable new users , including Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern, soccer star Hope Solo, New York Jets wide receiver Plaxico Burress, Napster founder Sean Parker, Nelson Mandela and the Bronx Zoo's Cobra .

Fired "Two and a Half Men" actor Charlie Sheen joined in March and broke the record for receiving one million followers the fastest, "winning" the mark in just 25 hours and 17 minutes. "30 Rock" star Alec Baldwin also joined in 2011 and caused a ruckus last week when he tweeted about being kicked off a plane for refusing to turn off his cell phone.

According to Twitter , the most shared and retweeted post of the year was from restaurant chain Wendy's: " RT for a good cause. Each retweet sends 50 to help kids in foster care. #TreatItFwd ." The one tweet raised $50,000 for the charity and earned Twitter's "Golden Tweet" award.

According to Twitter , the most popular movies discussed were "Thor" and "The Dark Knight Rises," while the most-talked about actors were Charlie Sheen, Elizabeth Taylor and Mila Kunis. Rebecca Black's "Friday" and Nate Dogg's death were the most tweeted music topics. "Pretty Little Liars" was the most popular TV show on Twitter.

Here's what the rest of 2011 looked like on Twitter:

The top 10 tweets of 2011 (according to ABC )
10. " Hey @Mortons - can you meet me at the newark airport with a porthouse when I land in two hours? K, thanks. :) " Social media guru Peter Shankman posted this and, when he landed at the airport, a tuxedo-clad Morton's waiter was waiting for him with a steak, shrimp, a side of potatoes, bread, two napkins and silverware.
9. " Ercis central mosque behind the apartment building... " This tweet giving a location saved the lives of two people who were trapped under rubble after an earthquake in Turkey.
8. " Subtitles are always so bad. England, America, Switzerland put one uv repeat Scrollingverfahren + = high quality! " Julia Probst, a lip-reader and soccer fan, tweets what players and coaches are saying during soccer games. According to ABC, she also helps raise awareness for deaf and disabled people in politics and media.
7. " Earthquake " Though a Virginia earthquake was felt in Syracuse this summer, Twitter was especially flooded with "are you okay?" and emergency relief information after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
6. " Here's another Photo of the shuttle from my plane. " In May, Stefanie Gordon's photo of what NASA's space shuttle Endeavour launch looked like from her window seat on a plane went viral.
5. " Brooms up London! " Social media users organized a massive cleanup effort in the U.K. following riots in August.
4. " This lockout is really boring..anybody playing flag football in Okc..I need to run around or something! " Oklahoma City Thunder player Kevin Durant tweeted this complaint during the NBA lockout. A student at Oklahoma State responded, inviting the basketball star to play a pick-up game of football and he accepted.
3. " my daughter her name is sarah m. rivera " A New York City organization helped a homeless man post a phone number to find his daughter. The two were reunited the next day.
2. " Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event). " A man in Pakistan unknowingly live-tweeted the death of Osama bin Laden.
1. " Welcome back Egypt #Jan25 " Wael Ghonim, a marketing manager at Google, tweeted this when he was released by the Egyptian government after being held captive for nearly two weeks.

The top 8 hashtags of 2011 (according to Twitter )
8. #jan25
7. #superbowl
6. #improudtosay
5. #japan
4. #idontunderstandwhy
3. #threewordstoliveby
2. #tigerblood
1. #egypt

The top 10 trending topics of 2011 (according to What The Trend )
10. One Direction (an Irish group formed on Britain's "X-Factor")
9. Japan earthquake
8. Britney Spears
7. Super Junior (a boy band from South Korea)
6. Christmas
5. Jonas Brothers
4. NBA
3. Lady Gaga
2. Soccer / football
1. Justin Bieber

» BuzzFeed: The 40 most memorable tweets of 2011
» Mashable: 42 Big-Name Twitter Accounts Launched in 2011
» Marketing Mag: Top 10 social media marketing slip-ups of 2011
» Facebook: The top 10 most shared articles on Facebook of 2011