5 Social Media Wins from 2014

One of my favorite things to see is a well planned and properly executed social media campaign. There is a lot of work that goes into a social media campaign and when a company pulls it off I love celebrating their success with them. On the other hand, I love seeing how fast something can happen, a company can take advantage of it and then it goes viral. How awesome would it be to be part of something that went viral? It’s not easy to do but with fast fingers for tweeting, a solid plan, and some creativity it’s definitely possible.

Many companies run social media campaigns continuously, but not all of them explode into something that everyone hears about. In this post I am sharing with you some of my favorite social media moments that happened in 2014.

1. ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge had celebrities, athletes and millions of other people dumping a bucket of ice over their head to raise awareness for The ALS Foundation, which helps fight the disease. This viral campaign helped The ALS Foundation receive 115 million in donations. Did you partake? 

2. Ellen’s #Selfie

Who could forget when Ellen DeGeneres took the best selfie ever at the Oscar’s? This was definitely a win for her and Samsung who was the sponsor. Ellen’s picture was retweeted 3,366,668 times making her tweet the most retweeted post on Twitter in 2014.

If only Bradley’s arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014

3. Arby’s and Pharrell’s Hat

Remember seeing Pharrell wearing that ridiculously large hat at the Oscars? That hat stirred up tons of social media buzz! Being a fast and creative social media manager, Arby’s jumped on their Twitter to ask Pharrell if they could get their hat back. I mean look how closely his hat resembles Arby’s logo? Could this have been planned the whole time? Nah.

Hey @Pharrell, can we have our hat back? #GRAMMYs — Arby’s (@Arbys) January 27, 2014

4. #AlexFromTarget

This one was shocking! A southern boy from Texas became Internet famous and he didn’t even know it. [Literally, this kid took my dream.] A girl was cashing out in #AlexFromTarget’s checkout lane when she decided to snap a picture and share with all of her friends because she thought he was attractive. It caught on fast and within a few hours his Twitter was blowing up with new followers. #AlexFromTarget was on the Ellen Show and also is going on tour with other Internet sensations. This all came from a picture that went viral!

5. Taco Bell’s Social Media Blackout

Taco Bell surprised customers when it wiped out its social media channels in October to promote its app. Taco Bell’s Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr pages were “blacked out” with a single post promoting the hashtag #onlyintheapp, effectively driving followers to the app.

“We needed to do something right out of the gate that people would notice, and what better way to notice and drive people to the new way to Taco Bell than the blackout?” said Chris Brandt, Taco Bell’s CMO. “We will continue to be active in social media, we will continue to be disruptive, we’re not walking away from all of those channels where we’ve built up a great discourse with our fans.”

2014 really showed us some great uses of social media. I can only imagine how social media is going to grow and change in the next years. Let me know which social media wins you enjoyed!

Maren Hogan

Maren Hogan is CEO of Red Branch and general Bad@$$

Maren Hogan is a seasoned marketer and community builder in the HR and Recruiting industry. Maren started Red Branch Media and, before she hired all the smiling faces you see below, she ran it on her own. In marketing for over 15 years, she has deep experience in strategic campaigns and a long-term, results-based operational approach.