Facebook reveals 2013 top trends for Australia: Princess Kate, Vote, Election, Tony Abbott, Cricket, Lions

1. Pope Francis

2. Election

3. Royal Baby

4. Typhoon

5. Margaret Thatcher

6. Harlem Shake

7. Miley Cyrus

8. Boston Marathon

9. Tour de France

10. Nelson Mandela

Politics featured heavily in Australian social engagement: the most talked about topics in Asutralia were:

1. Vote

2. Princess Kate

3. Cricket

4. Kevin Rudd

5. Grand final

6. Election

7. GST

8. Lions

9. Tony Abbott

10. Big Brother

“Recent research undertaken by TNS and commissioned by Facebook shows that Australians are increasingly accessing Facebook via a mobile device (81%). Also, 70% are using Facebook from multiple devices - desktop, phone and/or tablet,” Facebook said.

“Australians were more focused on politics than entertainment this year - in 2012, the top ten most mentioned terms were sport and entertainment.

“Politics and the 27th September federal election was also a big trend this year, with five of the top ten issues being political and the word "vote" topping the list overall. During the election campaign, there were over 12 million election-related mentions during the election campaign, and there were over 1 million posts on Facebook on election day talking about voting and the experience of voting.

“On election day itself, the term "vote" started trending at 7am, just before polls opened, and spiked at 10am during the day, and again at 10pm with over 60,000 at that time, as Mr Abbott delivered his victory speech.”

Facebook also revealed that sport dominated the places where its users checked in, with sporting venues dominating the list. The top ten checked in locations in Australia were:

1. MCG

2. Crown Melbourne

3. Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne

4. Etihad Stadium, Melbourne

5. Darling Harbour, Sydney

6. Sydney Opera House, Sydney

7. Dreamworld Australia, Gold Coast

8. The Star, Sydney

9. Bondi Beach, Sydney

10. ANZ Stadium, Sydney

“In 2013, Melbourne was by far the most social city by check-ins than Sydney. In 2012, Sydney has three of the top five most checked-in places in the country,” Facebook said.

“But in 2013, only one of the top five is in Sydney - with Darling Harbour slipping to 5th and the other top four being Melbourne-based.

“The most checked-in place in Perth is the Perth Arena, the most checked-in place in Brisbane is Suncorp Stadium; and, in Adelaide it's the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.”

In 2013, the most popular public figures were Kate Middleton, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, Julia Gillard and Miranda Kerr.