2013 was a huge year for social media! We've rounded up some of the biggest social media moments from this year.
1. Oreo tweeted during the Super Bowl. As the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49-ers were going head-to-head in this year's Super Bowl XLVII, a power outage occurred (earning the game the nickname Blackout Bowl). Brands quickly took action to use the blackout to their benefit, but none did it quite as well as Oreo. Regardless of who did it best, the blackout set a new standard for brands to produce extremely timely and relevant content. We saw this continue throughout 2013 as brands drew inspiration from current events like the royal baby, season finales and award shows.
2. Twitter launched Vine, a video sharing app that allows users to create 6-second video masterpieces. The app didn't waste any time launching itself into the 100 most popular apps for the iPhone. Today, it has over 40 million registered users. Not to be outdone, Instagram quickly followed with a video feature of its own, making short-form video production one of the most popular things to do in 2013.
3. The word "selfie" earned itself a place in the Oxford English Dictionary in August. The official definition describes a selfie as "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website". Three months later, it was crowned Word of the Year for 2013. Everyone from Pope Francis to President Obama indulged in selfies this year. The popularity of the term and the actual practice highlights how accustom we've grown to instantaneous photo-sharing and real-time updates.
4. The Associated Press' Twitter account was hacked and a fake tweet was sent out claiming that there had been an explosion at the White House and Barack Obama had been injured. Within seconds, the tweet caused panic on Wall Street and sent the Dow plunging 150 points. The AP quickly deleted the tweet, the White House assured the public that the president was fine and the stock market eventually recovered. Meanwhile, we all paused to consider the awesome power that one little tweet can have in today's society.
5. Facebook introduced hashtags. Created by Twitter user Chris Messina in 2007, hashtags became largely popular on the micro-blogging site Twitter. Other social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest began using them as well, but it wasn't until June of this year that Facebook joined the hashtag party too. According to Facebook, many users were already using hashtags on the platform; they just weren't clickable yet. Facebook's launch of functional hashtags made it easier for brands to track their customer's conversations around marketing campaigns on the popular social media network.
6. The pope joined Twitter. In December of this year, Pope Francis became the first pope to join Twitter. Using the Twitter handle @Pontifex, he has amassed over 3 million followers. Other notable figures hopped on the social media bandwagon this year as well, including Warren Buffet, Jamie Dimon, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
