Photo by Rosaura Ochoa
Since I can no longer enjoy the Best Year Ever recaps from VH1, I decided to put together my own social media edition because, after all, that’s our speciality here at Agency entourage.
It seems only fitting to kick things off with a look at the best social media moments of 2011. Rebecca Black forever changed the way we think about Friday, Rick Perry forgot his lines, Osama bin Laden was finally taken care of, planking became a favorite past time across the nation, the Royal Wedding Flower Girl stole our hearts, Charlie Sheen flew over the cuckoo’s nest, and the Fox News Twitter account was hacked…just to name a few. Luckily, once something goes viral, it may be forgotten, but it’s never gone. We’ll be able to look back at these moments, and so many more, for years to come (and either burst into laughter or shy away in embarrassment).
Over the course of 2011, Twitter swept the nation. Its’ popularity grew ten-fold and the “#” and “@” symbols became a part of everyone’s normal online vocabulary. Now let’s take a look at Twitter’s 15 Major Milestones in 2011. In the past 365 days Twitter has celebrated its 5th birthday, acquired TweetDeck, launched the “Follow” button for websites, added photo and video sharing (this was probably my favorite 2011 Twitter moment), grown to a whopping $7 billion dollar net worth, exceeded 100 million active users, unleashed a web analytics tool, taken over Madison Avenue, and, most recently, launched a major redesign. Twitter has grown leaps and bounds in the past five years and if it continues to grow at this rate, which I hope it does, I can’t wait to see where it will go in 2012!
Last, but certainly not least, I’d like to highlight Flickr’s 2011: The Year in Photos. While their compilation may not compare to Life Magazine’s Pictures of the Year, Flickr did a wonderful job, in my opinion, of collecting photos from some of the biggest, and most memorable, events of the year. They included pictures from milestones such as the final flight of Space Shuttle Discovery, the Japan earthquake and tsunami, the royal wedding (how could this ever be left out?), the Joplin, MO. tornado devastation, the final Harry Potter premiere, Hurricane Irene, the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the occupy Wall Street protests, the death of Steve Jobs, and the St. Louis Cardinals winning The World Series.
Overall, I think it’s safe to say that 2011 has been a very memorable year on the social media front. The highs, the lows, and everything in between have been virally shared for the world to see, some platforms have faded out and some have made their debut, and we have all mastered the art of speaking in 140 characters or less.
We’ve made our social media predictions for 2012 and we can’t wait to see if any of them come to fruition. Do you have any predictions that you’d like to share with us? We’d love to hear about them on Facebook or Twitter!
