Syria, Obama and Putin the hot topics on Twitter as G8 begins

Syria, Obama and Putin the hot topics on Twitter as G8 begins

Today saw the commencement of the G8 Summit, with leaders arriving and the first batch of comments being made. It has been a busy day for the #G8 hashtag, with nearly 50,000 tweets receiving over 500 million impressions.

As might be expected, the leaders themselves were among the most discussed topics on Twitter today. Barack Obama leads the table for most-mentioned world leader with nearly a quarter of all #G8 tweets referencing the US President. Russia’s Putin comes second, followed closely by David Cameron.

Syria was, as expected, one of the most hotly discussed topics around the G8 today (mentioned in over 12 per cent of all #G8 tweets), with many wondering what discussions will be like between the US and Russia on the issue.

As has been the case throughout the run-up to the Summit, tax was the most popular of the G8’s three main priority issues today, with 7 per cent of all tweets.

The BBC’s Ireland Correspondent, Mark Simpson (@BBCMarkSimpson) summed up the expected key issues well today, earning him the title of most retweeted on #G8, with 333 retweets at the time of writing:

With discussions well underway both at Lough Erne and on the Twittersphere, we will be back tomorrow with more information on how the G8 is shaping up on Twitter.

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