Today, Billboard and Twitter officially launch the Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts. These new, interactive charts redefine how fans interact with, and influence, popular content by ranking the most popular songs being shared on Twitter in the U.S.

VIEW THE CHARTS: TRENDING 140 | EMERGING ARTISTS

The first of the real-time charts, the Billboard Trending 140, is an up to the minute ranking of songs shared in the U.S., measured by acceleration over the past hour. This chart can be filtered to present a real-time view of the most shared track in the U.S. over the past 24 hours, with a weekly summary presented as the Billboard Twitter Top Tracks chart on Billboard.com and in print in Billboard.

Austin Mahone Performs at Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts Launch Event

The Billboard Twitter Emerging Artists chart is a ranking of the most shared songs on Twitter in the U.S. by up-and-coming artists ranked by the number of times each song was shared over the past 24 hours. Billboard Twitter Emerging Artists is presented as a seven-day/weekly round up on Billboard.com and in print in Billboard.

Song shares are tracked and incorporated into the Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts by:

* the use of, or the inclusion, of a link to the song via music listening platforms, such as Spotify, Vevo and iTunes.

* the use of various track sharing notations, such as the hashtags "#nowplaying" or "#np," along with song/artist name.

* the use of various terms associated with the song and song playing, such as "music," "song," "track," "listen."

The charts are specifically designed to work with how users share and interact with music on Twitter, which is the most discussed subject on the platform in the U.S. with more than one billion Tweets sent about the topic in 2013. One-hundred million of those Tweets came from music accounts, and seven of the top 10 most-followed accounts on the entire platform are musicians.

To launch the Billboard Twitter Real-Time charts, Billboard teamed up with pop star Austin Mahone to showcase just how the sharing of a track by fans on Twitter, in this case with "The Shadow" - a song from his just-released EP "The Secret" - can drive popularity and chart ranking.

"I am thrilled to be one of the first artists to see my songs move on the Billboard Twitter Charts," said Mahone. "For me, it's always about my fans, and I love seeing what all my Mahomies are saying about the new EP – it's exciting that there’s finally a platform that tracks what the fans are saying about music in real-time."

The Billboard Twitter Real-Time charts are another example of Billboard staying at the forefront of tracking music consumption. With the launch in recent years of the Social 50, On-Demand Songs and Streaming Songs, and now the Billboard Twitter Real-Time charts, Billboard has empowered music fans and music consumers with rankings that reflect how they interact with music and artists.

Consistent placement in the high rankings of the real-time chart can help artists gain placement on the two weekly versions of the real-time charts, which will be found in print each week in Billboard magazine.

More detailed information about the Billboard Twitter Real-Time charts can be found here, and be sure to check back often to find the most talked-about artists on Twitter.