Facebook has just published some fascinating lists looking at what millions of people have posted on Facebook during 2011. They call it “memology” and it takes the pulse of Facebook’s 800 million strong global community. Charlie Sheen captured people’s attention in March, when his trademark “winning,” “tiger blood” and “goddesses” memes took off. Later that month, military operations got underway in Libya, prompting a surge in status updates mentioning “Libya” and “Gaddafi.”

The marriage of Kate Middleton and Prince William dominated the conversation in April and days later it was  the death of Osama bin Laden, which became the most talked about event on Facebook for 2011. On May 1, almost 10 percent of all status updates in English mentioned news of his death. On a lighter note 2011 was also the year of “lms” and “tbh” went viral.

In August, Hurricane Irene struck the east coast of the US, with people taking to Facebook to get the latest emergency warnings and to make sure their friends and family were safe.

The year was also marked by outpourings of sadness and memories after the deaths of Amy Winehouse in July and Steve Jobs in October.

Finally, the launch of the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the big event of November, marking the biggest entertainment launch of all time.

Memes for 2011

As well as identifying the top ten global topics on Facebook, we also dug through the data to identify the top trending cultural phenomena for the year.

Planking

Planking was the flash in the pan meme on Facebook for 2011. Status updates mentioning planking, where people lie face down in unusual locations, exploded in May. That happened after Max Key, the son of New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, posted a Facebook photo of himself planking in the family lounge with his father in the background.

The fad quickly lost steam, then rebounded in July when celebrities such as Tom Green, Chris Brown and Katy Perry drew more attention to it.  But even they couldn’t stem planking’s eventual decline.

lms for a tbh

2011 was also the year of “lms” and “tbh.”

“lms,” short for “like my status” is an invitation to Facebook friends to like something (“lms if u find this funny!”)

A new use of “lms” emerged this year as a way to interact with friends on Facebook. “lms and I’ll post your best feature” asks friends to like a status and get a response in the comments.  This catapulted “lms” to become the fastest-growing meme of 2011.

“tbh” or “to be honest” began as a way to add sincerity at the beginning or end of a statement – like “tbh i completely agree with you.”

“tbh” soon went viral. Now it’s often used in conjunction with “lms” to give honest feedback about friends – the most iconic status update for 2011 was “lms for a tbh. ”

While the growth of these two acronyms is slowing, they’re likely to remain part of the Facebook lexicon in 2012.