A piece of content–even one as brief as 140 characters–going viral is a marketer’s nirvana. Unfortunately, virality is a fickle beast. It cannot be courted, faked, or forced. Virality is highly relative, and varies wildly between consumer segments, often with little crossover. It’s an exceptional marketer who can catalyze a viral trend, and even when he does strike digital discourse gold, control over those discussions is, well, nonexistent. What marketers can do is contextualize viral topics and trends for their brand, thereby participating in the larger conversations that are sweeping the Web on a given day. Before this can happen, however, marketers must be informed.
To that end, we’ve spent the past six months tracking news and events that captivated the Web, and particularly enthralled Twitter users. Here, we’ve highlighted some of the most incendiary moments of the first half of the year. Enjoy the reminiscence, let us know if we missed anything, and remember: We’ve got another six months of social media shenanigans to go.
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Taylor Swift Demonstrates the Power of Anti-Influencer Marketing The Apple brand commands enviable equity and staggering ubiquity; and all it took was a 25-year-old songstress from Pennsylvania to cause it to change course. |
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E3 remains one of the most prominent conferences in the country, as evidenced by the numerous internationally trending hashtags surrounding the event, despite it being closed to the public. |
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Why the Fallout 4 Campaign May Be Strangest Case of Virality in 2015 There’s something to be said of the marketing team that can capture the general Web’s attention with an announcement of an announcement. |
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Star Wars Marketing Continues to Take Over Twitter Fueled by the fandom and fervor around the planned Disney and Lucasfilm holiday release of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, brands and celebrities joined millions of Twitter users in celebration of the informal Star Wars holiday: May 4. |
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Female Empowerment Dominates Twitter The two most popular hashtags, #EqualPayDay and #ToTheGirls, each speak to female empowerment in the home, social life, and workplace–with the former exclusively critiquing gender wage gaps in 2015. |
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Jay Z Makes Waves in Music Marketing With Tidal Jay Z, his followers, his compatriots, and their followers stormed social media, making waves with bright cyan and global trending hashtags, such as #TIDALforALL. |
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Apple Ignites the Web (Again) With the Apple Watch Similar to other major releases in the tech world, Apple’s forthcoming device immediately began trending. |
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The Net Neutrality Debate Consumes the Web With so many consumed by net neutrality and its various connected topics, marketers should stay on top of new developments. |
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Missy Elliott Called the Best Play During the Super Bowl The word of mouth and social media buzz that Elliott’s three-minute segment generated led to a notable increase in music streams and single sales for the emcee. |
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Technology, Innovation—and Cynicism Dominate Social Conversations About CES The snide comments are easy to disregard, but the sentiment behind them may warrant marketers’ attention. |
