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LEWIS

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LEWIS

Published on

December 20, 2018

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This Week in Social

2018 has been quite the year, from Beyoncé giving an amazing performance at Coachella, to the infamous beast from the east. Amongst all that, social media was buzzing with activity, news, gossip, and viral videos. As the year comes to a close, we thought it was about time we pulled together some of the top stories featured in our weekly blog, This Week In Social. So prepare yourself a mince pie and a cup of tea, and get ready for a trip down memory lane.


January

Instagram added GIF stickers which can be added to videos and images in Stories

L’Oreal Paris became the first brand to include a hijab-wearing model 

Facebook started demoting brand content in users’ News Feeds

February

KFC showed brands how to use social media to deal with a crisis during their chicken shortage

Twitter began partnering with news stations to live stream broadcasts during major breaking news events

Pepsi Co were reportedly developing ‘Lady Doritos’ and the internet was not happy about it

March

Snapchat shares dropped by $1bn after criticism from Rhianna

The world’s favourite professional social media site, LinkedIn, turned 15

Brewdog missed the mark with Pink IPA for International Women’s Day

snapchat

April

Whetherspoons bucked the trend and quit all their social media accounts

Mark Zuckerberg faced US Congress on Captiol Hill

Instagram joined Twitter and eBay and abandoned Apple Watch

May

Prince Harry got married and a LOT of brands jumped onboard the gravy train 

An American woman scored a job at Spotify after launching a social media campaign, website, and custom playlist

Childish Gambino released ‘This is America’ and went viral, amassing 100 million hits in just 9 days

June

Shell released a heart-warming campaign as Saudi Arabia lifted the ban on women’s driving licenses

Nike won the first ever Grand Prix prize for the Social & Influencer category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

IHOP’s ‘IHOB’ PR stunt fell flat and got mocked by Netflix and Burger King

July

Kylie Jenner was named on Forbes’ rich-list, showing how profitable social media can be

Twitter purged millions of fake accounts, leaving Katy Perry with 2.8million less followers

The ABCD emoji was named most unpopular emoji, stealing the crown from the aerial tramway

August

Facebook and Instagram introduced new time limit tool to help users spend less time online

Instagram offered all users the chance to get that coveted blue badge if they’re a ‘notable public figure’

Apple shares hit $207.05, making it the world’s first ever trillion-dollar public company

September

Twitter brought back chronological timeline after huge demand

A fishmonger in Kuwait was busted on social media for sticking googly eyes onto fish

Unilad went under the HMRC microscope as they face insolvency proceedings

Fish

October

Blackpool police made Friends with David Schwimmer on social media after being faced with a lookalike thief

Google announced the end of Google+ following a security exposure

Snapchat listened to the masses and have introduced filters for cats

November

Iceland revealed that their Christmas ad had been banned and the internet stepped in

Channel 4 signed a deal with Facebook to broadcast a weekly news show

A £50 Christmas ad went viral and stole John Lewis’ festive thunder

December

O2’s data went down and Twitter had a good laugh at it

Facebook said it could predict the future

The annual ‘top 9’ Instagram posts tradition continued

2019

Whilst no one can predict the ups and downs of social media in 2019, we’ll be here every Friday bringing you the latest news, updates, and viral posts throughout the next year. Keep an eye on our blog here.

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