Yahoo LifestyleThe 10 Biggest Social Media Bandwagons Of The Year
How many did you get on?
Considering that we’re bombarded with so many selfies, updates, videos and hashtags every day that we’re all fairly sure our brains might explode soon, the ones that manage to capture our attention have to be seriously special.
Here are the memes we were obsessed with this year - and why we gave them so much social media love...
The Random One:
#alexfromtarget, November 2014
“Am i famous now?” tweeted a confused Alex Christopher LaBeouf after gaining 300,000 new followers in one day when a girl posted a picture of him working in US shop Target with those very special words, erm, ‘YOOOOOOOOOO’.
This was big: he even ended up on Ellen.
Marketing agency Breakr claimed the meme was a social experiment on ‘fangirls’, but that’s since been dismissed. Instead, says Leo Burnett Worldwide’s Global Head of Mobile and Social, James Kirkham, the #alexfromtarget phenomenon was all about the right things coming together.
“If a number of the right people - in this instance teenage girls, who effectively run the internet - are tweeting at the same time with the same hashtag, then it will trend,” says Kirkham. “And then the self fulfilling prophecy occurs.
Reddit and other social platforms almost scrape Twitter for their news. So the content is ‘taken’ and re-produced complete with trackable hashtag into other social spheres to new audiences. Those audiences in turn discuss and share and the huge event gathers even more momentum.”
Plus, you know, his hair was a bit like Early Bieber so that probably helped.
The Huge Celebrity One:
Kim Kardashian’s Paper shoot, November 2014
It may seem obvious why Kim Kardashian almost did #breaktheinternet with her Paper magazine shoot, but it’s actually more complex than ‘She got naked.’
First there was the drip feed element: the shot from behind released first, then the front one, and then - just as it’s in danger of leaving the news - the parodies, which mean that everyone can join in.
“If you’re lucky you can keep memes like this going for a few days,” says Jamie Riddell, CEO of Social Media Analytics firm BirdSong, Kirkham points out too that the shoot worked well in an social media streams because it leaps out.
“It literally looks like nothing else you’ve seen,” he says. “So people scrolling through streams on their phones just HAVE to stop and look and share.”
The Accidental Brand Promotion:
The Guy Who Got Locked In Waterstones Overnight, October 2014
“How many funny stories like that happen every day?” says Riddell. “This one was picked up because it was in Waterstones - which is a huge brand. It wouldn’t have been picked up if it was Dave’s bookshop in North London.”
Waterstones even ran a competition for people to spend a night in their store after it happened, which is about as savvy a response to a social media frenzy as we’ve ever heard, but also... might have been chilly.
The Feminist One:
#likeagirl, June 2014
Kirkham, who worked on the #likeagirl campaign with Always, says that initially, the hashtag took off entirely of its own accord, because the video - which challenged what it meant to run, fight and throw ‘like a girl’ - was “amazing content.”
“It emotionally resonated, struck a chord, begun a whole movement,” he says. “Then talent got behind it and it became unstoppable.”
The Marketed One:
#montythepenguin, November 2014
“Emotions are a key part of a successful viral,” says Riddell. “Whether it’s making you laugh, making you angry or making you cry, it’s got to make you feel something.”
The power of the huge John Lewis brand might have had something to do with the success of their Christmas advert too.
“This isn’t ‘just taking off’ by chance but is a highly orchestrated, carefully curated PR push involving multiple publications all talking about it on the same day at the same time,” says Kirkham. “Promoted tweets, probably some Facebook media spend too.”
Yes yes, but also... CUTE PENGUIN!
The TV one:
Great British Bake Off’s #bingate, August 2014
So essentially, the entire country started talking about a man who threw his cake in a bin. Don’t blame us, we were high on sugar.
But, says Riddell, this is a great example of the cyclical nature of modern news.
“Yes, lots of people tweeted along with the show,” he says. “But when you go back and track when that took off, it’s because news sites with huge amounts of followers wrote about it. That’s what’s called a tipping point, and then there’s no stopping it.”
The One Where Everyone Joins In:
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, August 2014
Sometimes, things come together to create the perfect social media viral and this summer, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was it.
“It coincided beautifully with Facebook’s auto play video functionality, the first campaign to exploit it,” says Kirkham. “It was perfect content to leverage this too, with the video narrative leading you in to want to see the ‘money shot’ of the icy challenges. Without auto play video these scenes would not have been seen so effectively and results would have been vastly different.”
Ok, ok, you’re right, this does seem a good excuse to relive Becks with his top off.
The One We Debated:
#nomakeupselfie for Cancer Research, March 2014
With the no make-up selfie there was no end to the number of people who could join in, meaning the story kept running and running, much like the Ice Bucket Challenge. And it didn’t end there. Because after the pictures came the opinion pieces - were people REALLY wearing no make-up? Was this the best way to raise money for charity anyway?
“If it can be dissected in a number of ways the story can keep gathering pace,” says Riddell. “We’ve seen it with Band Aid. Who came and who sung, who was invited and didn’t come, who wasn’t invited, why they weren’t invited… all these different angles means it keeps running.”
The Photoshop Extravaganza:
Ashley Cole Lurking, July 2014
No sooner had a picture of Ashley Cole lurking on the edge of his new team photo been released, but the internet had a new favourite game: Photoshopping Ashley lurking into an array of other situations. It didn’t quite get our own back for what he did to Cheryl but it did help.
That wasn’t the only reason it went viral though.
“People can get involved,” says Riddell. “If the average user can get involved, they will share it, plus having an engaging image is crucial.”
The Funny One:
Taylor Swift “No it’s Becky”, September 2014
Is there any celebrity who does social media as well as Taylor Swift? Don’t answer us, it’s a rhetorical question, and we don’t deal well with Taylor-based critique.
Tay spotted a picture a girl had posted on Instagram of her friend ‘Becky, who had died from taking marijuana’, with a reply pointing out that it was, er, actually Taylor Swift, and the subsequent comeback:
“No it’s Becky.”
And that would have been it, if Taylor hadn’t posted a picture of her wearing a ‘No it’s Becky’ t-shirt on her Tumblr.
“If a celebrity does something funny, the celebrity sites write about it,” says Riddell. “And it immediately becomes huge.”
[Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter Make First Appearance Since Engagement News]
[What Kim Kardashian Going Full-Frontal Means For The Magazine Industry]
Macualey Culkin and Ryan Gosling t-shirt gate? Parklife? Greggs The Bakers and their - um - ‘alternate’ logo? Let us know which 2014 virals you would add to our top ten list in the comments below...
