A year online - 2013

2012 was always going to be hard to follow, let alone beat after an incredible year filled with jubilation and excitement that surrounded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. However, it could be argued that 2013 has been equally successful especially in regards to social media campaigns and viral videos. 2013 has definitely been one of the most social years to date.

There are 100s of brands on a variety of different social platforms, all creating content to grab your attention, increase conversations/sales and wanting to become the ‘next big thing’. So, to try and find the best social media campaigns EVER during 2013 is almost impossible, as there are so many. I’ve decided to share with you some of my personal favourite campaigns, viral videos and popular topics/trends of 2013.

There were some pretty impressive social media campaigns but one of my favourites has to be the world famous Oreo tweet sent during the black out at the Superbowl. Oreo saw an opportunity, seized it and played it to its highest advantage. Greatly simple or simply great? I’m going to go with the latter.

I’m a sucker. And I mean a big one. Anything that can pull on your heartstrings, make tears well up in your eyes and make your tummy summersault is a winner in my eyes. These sorts of campaigns tend to be the ones that people relate to most and want to be seen as a supporter of such a topic. There were so many to choose from, but I have managed to narrow it down to three.

The first graced our Facebook news feeds in March this year and lead to over 120 percent more users changing their profile picture on Tuesday 26^th. This was the powerful social media campaign lead by the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) to support equality in marriage, especially for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. I was one of those users who changed their profile picture – this was a campaign that proved there is a huge majority of the world who believe in marriage equality and were more than happy, and somewhat proud, to show their support.

The next is also another non-for-profit organisation who used the powers of Facebook to promote their charitable work. UNICEF sent out a pretty powerful, hard hitting message to its Facebook following; “Like us on Facebook, and we will vaccinate zero children against polio”. Pretty harsh, right? Wrong! This was the perfect message to send out to the public to prove that no matter how many likes or followers a social platform has, it isn’t going to change the world but it helps to get the messages needed across.

The third one has to be one of my favourite campaigns of all time. I am a huge fan of previous campaigns that have been created by Dove but this one is just amazing. The video that was created for this campaign can only be described as pure genius – women describe themselves to an artist, they draw what they hear – the same happens but someone else describes the same woman and the images in comparison to one another are simply incredible. This is highlight how women are their biggest critics and should stop being so harsh on themselves – a lesson I think most individuals can relate to.

There are also campaigns and virals that simply make you smile. It’s as simple as that. For the few minutes you take out of your day to witness these campaigns/virals they make you feel happy and that everything is right in the world.

Then there are the viral videos that you just so happen to come across when someone has shared it on Facebook or you read about it online. Some are fun, easy-viewing designed to create giggles but some provide warmth in your heart and sometimes make you feel things that you never thought were possible. I didn’t have to think about these, nor did I have to do any research, as these were pretty obvious decisions; San Fran Batkid and West Jet Christmas. I fill with joy just thinking about them let alone watching them again.

For those of you who don’t know what these are (shame on you!) here’s a brief summary of the two.
San Fran Batkid – what a hero! Five year old, Miles Scott has been in remission for Leukaemia for the past four years was given the chance by the Make A Wish Foundation to become Batman or Batkid for the day. Volunteers and employees of the foundation did everything they could to make the streets of San Francisco turn into a real life Gotham City, where he would work alongside the ‘real’ batman fighting crime and doing things that superheroes do. Now, at the moment this is just a lovely story about a young boy, suffering with cancer being granted a once in a lifetime opportunity and honouring the amazing work that the Make A Wish Foundation do… Not so! Once the citizens of San Francisco caught wind of what was going on, through numerous tweets, hundreds of people lined the streets to witness and cheer on Batkid whilst he was saving the city. Just amazing. Social media is such a powerful tool, and can do ANYTHING (ok, maybe not anything, but it can help with a lot!) it brings communities together and allows conversations to start where anybody from around the world can join in and be a part of something bigger. 

Another great example of how social media can be used for the greater good and for selfless ways was the moment a plea popped up on everyone’s Facebook news feed and was retweeted throughout Twitter. Harold Percival, a war veteran sadly passed away at the age of 99 in 2013, who had never married or had any children was facing his death and funeral alone, however the power of social media came into play, the news spread across Twitter and Facebook pleading for people who had spare time and lived near the area (or wanted to travel) to turn up to his funeral so he wasn’t on his own. The result? Up to 300 people arrived on the day of Harold’s funeral and gave him the send-off he deserved – if that doesn’t give you goose bumps then I don’t know what will.

I don’t feel like I need to say anything about the West Jet Christmas video as it simply speaks for itself. Enjoy.

So, I’ve discussed the ones that make you cry and fill you with joy, the ones that make an impact or provide a powerful message, but what about the ones that a just fun and get you physically involved?

Co-operative Food hosted a fantastic campaign called Tweet4aTable. This was where followers of the Co-operative Food twitter page could tweet at any time of the day to secure themselves a table at the pop up Tweet4aTable restaurants. This was a brilliant campaign that allowed Twitter users to get involved physically and received something in return, but also promotes the Co-operative food itself. If you want more information from someone who actually ate at one of the pop up restaurants then I recommend reading the amazing blog by Pamela Bustard.

http://www.spamellab.com/2013/09/tweet4atable-food-social-media-the-ideal-ingredients-for-a-successful-campaign/

We’ve (finally) come to the end of my year online. There were hundreds of campaigns and viral videos I could have wrote about, but we would literally be here forever. These are some of my favourites, and all my opinions are my own. Hope you enjoyed reading and hopefully there was at least one that made an impact on you today just like they all did for me.

WAIT… I couldn’t finish this blog without letting you watch this fantastic video (if you haven’t already seen it). I don’t care what anyone says, I seriously LOVE this.

XMAS JAMMIES!

Hope you all had an amazing Christmas and New year! Here's to a successful, happy 2014!

Hopeful

xxx