The Power of Twitter

Disney fans pay tribute to monorail driver Austin Wuennenberg by getting #Austin into Twitter trending topics

posted by Etan Horowitz on Jul 6, 2009 4:01:26 PM

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Fans of Walt Disney World's parks and resorts are a passionate bunch, so Sunday's monorail accident that killed 21-year-old Austin Wuennenberg of Kissimmee was particularly emotional for fans.

And in recent months, Disney fanatics have also taken to micro-blogging site Twitter, where they share tips about visiting a park or post pictures.

So to commemorate Wuennenberg's life, a group of Disney fans created the Twitter hashtag #Austin and told others to include it in their tweets. Their goal was to get the term into Twitter's trending topics, which is a realtime reflection of the most popular words and phrases people are putting in their Twitter messages.

The effort appears to have begun on Sunday afternoon, with this tweet from @DisneyFrankness, a Twitter user named Frank from Missouri.

DisneyFrankness @DisneyDean maybe we could try to make #Austin a top Twitter trend as a tribute? 2:12 PM Jul 5th from Tweetie in reply to DisneyDean

After nearly two days of trying, #Austin made it into the Twitter trending topics about an hour ago. It's currently the fifth most popular trending topic, after #musicmonday, Michael Jackson, Houston and MJ's.

Since the top trending topics are displayed on the right side of Twitter.com (pictured at right) when you log into your profile, supporters hope having #Austin near the top will raise awareness of Wuennenberg and the accident. You can also see the top trending topics at search.twitter.com.

Here's @DisneyFrankness reaction to seeing #Austin in trending topics:

DisneyFrankness I am sure #Austin is smiling upon us all! 9 minutes ago from Tweetie

UPDATE 4:15 P.M.: @DisneyParks, the official Twitter account for Disney's parks and resorts, just sent out this tweet offering condolences to Wuennenberg's family, friends and coworkers. This is the first tweet from @DisneyParks since the accident.

DisneyParks Our hearts go out to Austin's family, friends and co-workers as we continue to mourn his passing. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. 6 minutes ago from CoTweet