What Mattered in 2011 for Social Media

WHAT MATTERED IN 2011 RR SOCIAL MEDIA 2011 was certainly the year when social media took center stage. It saw large IPOS, new technology, celebrity breakdowns, and cultural uprisings. As the year comes to a close, we take a look at which social media trends and events hit the spot and which ones missed the mark. HIT THE SPOT MISSED THE MARK JAN JAN DAY OF RAGE ARAB SPRING Though it officially started at the end of December 2010, the Arab Spring spreads like wildfire thanks to social media sites. Pictures flood Twitter and Facebook as anti-Mubarak protestors in Egypt flood the streets of Cairo. FEB KENNETH BLUNDER FEB In a major PR blunder Kenneth Cole tweets "Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available." MAR MAR GAMIFICATION Born out of SXSW, the word gamification is introduced referring to the use of social gaming to drive action. JAPAN DISASTER Aid organizations leverage social media for donations and resources. Google sets up the People Finder app, which receives 7,000 entries its first week. AFLACD Gilbert Gottfried loses his job as the Aflac duck-voice after a series of insensitive tweets about the tsunami in Japan. APR APR ROYAL WEDDING A consecutively top trending topic on Twitter, nearly 1 million tweets related to the event are tweeted in the month leading to the nuptials. MAY MAY FRIENDSTER CLOSES in Friendster discontinues its social network accounts and repositions itself as a social gaming site. OSAMA BIN LADEN News of Osama bin Laden's death generates the highest number of Sustained tweets to date: 3,400 per second. LINKEDIN IPO LinkedIn trades its first share under LNKD and nearly doubles its initial share price to $94.25. JUN JUN PANDORA ANTHONY WEINER g+ The TwitPic that launched a thousand retweets forces Weiner to resign from the House of Representatives after 12 years of service. PANDORA IPO Pandora begins trading on the NYSE with a valuation of $2.6 billion. GOOGLE LAUNCHES Google launches its newest venture into social networking, reaching 10 million users in 16 days. JUL WE ARE 997 JUL OCCUPY WALL STREET The #0ccupyWallStreet hashtag is first used, marking a crucial marriage between social media and the subsequent Occupy campaigns. TWITTER Twitter receives an $8 billion valuation. SPOTIFY LAUNCH Spotify launches in the US., exploding onto the social music scene and later combining forces with Facebook. AUG AUG LONDON RIOTS Prompted by social grievances, youth rioters take to the streets of London for four days and nights. The network effect of social media only triggers more attention to the conflict. SEPT SEPT F8 CONFERENCE Qwikster Facebook announces its newest redesign, Timeline, a new way to display content. CHARLIE SHEEN OWIKSTER Charlie Sheen breaks a world record for fastest person to reach 1 million followers; #winning hashtag is born. Part of a rebranding strategy from Netflix, Qwikster fizzles spectacularly as 800,000 U.S. subscribers chose not to renew. NOV NOV g+ GROUPON IPO GOOGLE BUSINESS PAGES Groupon becomes the largest IPO by a U.S. Internet company since Google in 2004. Google+ launches its Google+ Pages feature, allowing businesses and brands to create profiles within the social network to connect with customers and fans. INSTAGRAM Instagram reaches 13 million users only 13 months after its launch. DEC Gowal DEC PayPal GOWALLA PURCHASE Facebook purchases location-based service Gowalla for an undisclosed sum, only to shut down the service by the end of January. PAYPAL In a public exchange with Regretsy, PayPal announces that donating money to kittens rather than poor people constitutes a charitable cause. SOURCES: FORBES.COM I MASHABLE.COM I TECHNORATI.COM I ADAGE.COM I NYTIMES.COM I TECHCRUNCH.COM I ABCNEWS.COM I YAHOO.COM I SOCIALMEDIAWEEK.COM I REUTERS.COM I Flowtown. in Partnership with Column Five 12.02.|| 09.22. 06.21.11 INIOZ0 09.2711 II201| 1'9080 12.05.1 IIZOZO 05.02|1 ITITEO T'Br6o 06.28.11 ITEO