By Charlie White For Mashable
From March 9 to 18, South by South West (#SXSW) took place in Austin, Texas. Mashable had a big party at SXSW and we met lots of great people, including a few employees of LEGO. The Danish company surprised SXSW with its original business cards: LEGO figures with LEGO’s employees’ names on them. This picture, featuring Dennis Petersen’s figure (@dennisbp, 1000+ followers), is the most-popular #SXSW picture tweeted so far.
On March 9, it had been 15 years since Christopher George Latore Wallace, better known as rapper Notorious B.I.G. (or "Biggie Smalls") was killed in L.A. in a drive-by shooting. To this day, nobody has been charged with his murder. Wallace’s death was widely commemorated on Twitter in the past week, with over 25,000 tweeted pictures devoted to him. This picture of his mother Voletta Wallace holding Biggie’s picture was posted to Twitter by @allhiphopcom. #ripbig
This image was posted to Twitter by radio host Jose Antonio Ponton (@japonton, 13.000+ followers).
@stephyarmani tweeted this image along with the tweet: "#tomyunbornchild You will dress like this.” If you’ve been wondering what #swag is all about, this is a good example.
Ghetto-related hash tags appear to be popular almost every week. This week, #ghettotranslationsagain made our top 10 list. @_nard87 (300+ followers) ‘ghettotranslates’ this picture for us: “I really cant afford the computer I want, hopefully no one can tell the difference.”
According to @londonandreams (6000+ followers), “you should never try to understand a girl, because this is what her brain looks like.” The pic was originally located here. #dontever
About two weeks ago, a video displaying Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony and his presumed vile acts went viral. Thousands of #kony and #stopkony pictures and images have been posted to Twitter and the number is still growing. Kony’s video not only led to huge hype on the web, it also made for a renewed feeling of "having to do something," which this image illustrates well. #truth
What position are you in, while looking at this week’s popular tweet by @9Gagtweets (22.000+ followers)? #9Gagtweets
Even though SXSW’s Music Festival hadn’t even started, rapper and artist Jay-Z (@jayz, 650.000+ followers) performed live at the Amex Sync Show in Austin during SXSW Interactive. This somewhat overexposed picture taken at his concert was posted to Twitter by @MTV (over 3.5 million followers), along with the tweet: “Yeah, so...JAY-Z LIVE AT #SXSW!!!” #jayzsyncshow
Unfortunately, Valentine’s Day is already over. However, if you’re still looking for an original way to ask your crush out, @Forevar__Alone (6000+ followers) might have the perfect solution for you! His tweet accompanying this pic reads: “#ImTheTypeOfBoyfriend who'll ask you out like this.”
Twitter continues its explosive growth, and this week was certainly no exception. Boosted by SXSW, there was a multitude of pictures placed on the microblogging service from that super-popular festival. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that our most popular Twitter picture of the week was from SXSW.
There was a record volume of pictures to choose from this week — 47 million — and our intrepid denizens of Twitter photography at Skylines used their brilliant algorithm to determine which ones were the most popular.
The result? A surprisingly diverse group of shots. Some are laugh-out-loud funny, some poignant enough to bring a tear to the eye. There’s even some gentle ribbing of the sacred iPhone in there.
If you’re looking for the best Twitter pics in the world, you’ll be pleased with this week’s batch, which somehow gives you microcosm of the planet — a slice of life from today’s world, circa 2012.
In case you missed them, here are last week’s Top 10 Twitter Pics.
