The Year in Review
It’s rare to recognize change while it’s happening. With the New Year fast approaching, it’s a great time to reminisce on the past year and see how things have progressed, or in some cases, regressed. So join me for a walk down memory lane, and let me show you what happened in 2010… in social media that is…
Here are the top 10 most popular brands on Facebook. While fans clearly aren’t everything in Facebook, the important thing to note is the shift in fan numbers this year as compared to last year. This shift is an opportunity to challenge the notion that a page with one million fans is better than one with 100,000 fans. This clearly isn’t the case. When it comes to social media, especially Facebook, engagement is everything. I would much rather have more close-knit, engaged page than one with high population.
YouTube
Measuring the success of a video on YouTube is pretty straightforward. Did you get a lot of views? If so, you have done well, my friend. An interesting side note is figuring out how those videos got so many views; in other words, how were the videos shared. YouTube shows the 10 most shared videos of the year on their blog… As for the 10 most viewed videos of the year, it was a close race for first between a Ke$ha carbon copy and the Bed Intruder guy… Click on the screen grabs and have a look around.
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Twitter continued to grow in popularity this year; there’s no big surprise in that. The most interesting facet of Twitter is that the corporate world still hasn’t figured out how to best use the tool. This is clear by looking at the top ten Twitter accounts of 2010. While many of the top ten represent more than just a famous face (celebrities are brands too), in reality, they are still much smaller than the big names on YouTube and Facebook. Is it possible that Twitter isn’t cut out to be a corporate tool? I think Old Spice proved this isn’t the case. Are companies just missing the point when it comes to Twitter? This seems to be the more likely situation. Here are the top ten for you to consider. Want to see what they are saying? Just click the images.
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Best social media campaign of 2010
Again, numbers aren’t everything in social media, but there’s something to be said for those who reach this year’s top 10 in each category. Old Spice transformed social media this year, and integrated each tool to create an effective campaign. By letting users voice their questions for Isaiah Mustafa (the Old Spice guy) to answer, they showed that social media is best put to use as an interactive tool.. In fact, their questions via Twitter were responsible for Old Spice’s YouTube success. While the sheer number of Old Spice followers don’t compare to Gaga or the Biebs, they have created a successful path for what a social media campaign should look like in the corporate world. Old Spice has raised the bar…
Overall thoughts
It seems like companies have gotten a pretty good grasp of how to reach a mass audience with Facebook and YouTube. The jury is still out on Twitter, as showcased by classic brands not making the list. However, celebrities are brands, and Twitter may be the best social media tool for celebrities to reach their fans. Taking a cue from Old Spice, there is a lot of room for companies to engage the consumers in 2011.
Have any notable mentions for best social media companies of the year? Send it my way, and I’ll post an addendum. See you in 2011!
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