13 World Events That Rocked the Social Media World in 2011
Social media is most often used to keep friends connected with friends. However, every once in a while, something happens that ignites the social sphere with discussion, news, controversy and caring.
These are some of the most powerful, impactful, viral and moving social media events of 2011.
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
Japan’s earthquake and tsunami touched the world. The resulting chaos at Fukushima and the nuclear radiation brought increased concern about nuclear power globally. The world pooled together its resources to help Japan recover.
An hour after the quake hit Japan, there were reports that Twitter was experiencing 1,200 tweets posted every minute. And at most times today, eight or nine of Twitter's top 10 Trending Tropics — such as #prayforjapan, #tsunami and #japan — were directly related to the earthquake and tsunami.
On Facebook, people not only posted thoughts and prayers for the people of Japan, but also used their updates to tell friends and family where they are and how they are doing. Facebook pages related to the disaster, such as Japan Earthquake, also popped up, grabbing nearly 3,000 followers in about 12 hours.
Death of Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs was one of the most iconic and influential people of the Silicon Valley. He revolutionized three different industries: The PC industry, the music industry and the animation industry.
Steve Jobs, along with Steve Wozniak, created the first personal computer to have an integrated keyboard. They were the first to create a completely workable all-in-one computer. He created the iPod, the first mobile device capable of holding over 1,000 songs. He created iTunes, the most popular music store on the planet. He also helped found Pixar, which created the first computer generated full picture movie in history.
Internet users likely broke records as they jammed Twitter with tweets marked #iSad and #ThankYouSteve and flooded Facebook's news streams, swiftly spreading the news of Steve Jobs's death. Twitter activity hit 10,000 tweets per second following the announcement about Apple's co-founder death.
UK Riots
The riots in the UK were blamed in large part to social media. Riots were organized and incited through text messages, social media sites and other forms of Web 2.0 communication.
During the riots, questions of how much control governments should or shouldn't have over mobile communications became a central concern.
Here's a video that reveals how English rioters used Social Media.
Death of Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi, died on 20th October, 2011 during the Libyan Civil War 2011. He was fired at by the NTC and captured alive but wounded after taking refuge in a large drainage pipe with his loyal bodyguards. In a video published soon after, he can be seen draped with a cloth and his body being paraded and kicked by anti-Gaddafi protestors.
On Twitter, many users expressed joy at Gadaffi’s death, including tweets in Arabic saying things like “God is great” and “Libya is now 100% DEGAFFINATED”.
Social Media IPO’s
Pandora IPOed at $2.56 billion, LinkedIn IPOed at $4.2 billion and Facebook’s IPO is estimated to be at over $50 billion, creating over 1,000 millionaires overnight.
Social media has taken over the web sphere and social media sites, which hardly had any attention at all just five years ago, are poised to take center stage of both the internet and the business worlds.
Hurricane Irene
Hurricane Irene had windspeeds so dangerous that President Obama declared an evacuation of New York City. In addition to whipping up the seas and the winds, Hurricane Irene also whipped up the twittersphere.
Tweeters were using social media to keep one another up to date on danger zones, safety tips, family information and more. It put social media to a humanitarian use. More than a million Twitter messages were posted about Irene.
A Facebook page was created to help strangers try to return found items to their owners. As of today, more than 98,600 people had "liked" the page and many had already posted images of items they've found.
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