Social Enterprise

2014's top 8 moments in the business of social media

By // December 16, 2014, 8:37 AM PST // ErinCarson

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  • Coca Cola : #ShareaCoke

    Coca Cola brought its #ShareaCoke campaign to the US this summer. They took the 250 most popular names for teens and millennials, the Wall Street Journal reported, and put them on the label of their 20 ounce bottles. Consumers could find a bottle with their own name, or share with someone they know. The company saw about 125,000 social media posts with 96% positive or neutral sentiment.

  • Nasa : #globalselfie

    In honor of Earth Day, Nasa launched the #globalselfie campaign, encouraging people across the globe to snap selfies of themselves on Earth Day, in support of the initiative Earth Right Now. The result: an interactive, two-hemisphere mosaic of the Earth built from nearly 40,000 selfies submitted from 113 countries.

  • Newcastle Brown Ale : #ifwewon

    Newcastle Brown Ale's signature move is selling you beer, without apology and without pretense. They brought their devil-may-care approach to the #ifwewon campaign this summer which introduced July 3rd as Independence Eve and examined, via viral videos (some of which broke 2 million views), what would have happened if the British had won the Revolutionary War. Only Newcastle would have the audacity to sell British beer on Independence Day.

  • Cancer Research UK : #Nomakeupselfie

    At its peak, #nomakeupselfie generated thousands of tweets a day. Women took selfies of themselves without makeup to raise awareness and funding for Cancer Research UK. The organization raised £8 million. The funny thing -- they didn't even start it themselves.

  • Oreo : #oreosnackhacks

    Inspired by a picture that went viral of someone dunking an Oreo in milk using a fork, Oreo launched a web series (and initially some Vines) called Oreo Snack Hack focusing on different ways to eat the cookie.

  • Samsung : Oscars selfie

    The best part of the Oscars selfie, initiated by Ellen DeGeneres and featuring Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and more, was that it felt organic. The million plus retweets were also cool. The Wall Street Journal later reported that the stunt was somewhat planned. Samsung had an arrangement to have their Galaxy Notes integrated into the show. While Samsung's name wasn't initially closely tied with the pic, they were still getting about 900 mentions a minute at one point, WSJ reported.

  • Starbucks White Cup Contest

    Starbucks seized on a not so uncommon habit -- doodling on cups -- and turned it into a way for customers to engage with the brand. Participants could go nuts with pen or sharpie and submit a picture of their work through social media. They received more than 4,000 pictures. Starbucks picked a winner and her design will be printed on a reusable plastic cup.

  • ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

    Perhaps no other viral campaign in 2014 saw the same success of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Since July, ALSA.org received $115 million in donations and generated more than 2 million videos on Facebook, according to Time.

Coca Cola : #ShareaCoke

Coca Cola brought its #ShareaCoke campaign to the US this summer. They took the 250 most popular names for teens and millennials, the Wall Street Journal reported, and put them on the label of their 20 ounce bottles. Consumers could find a bottle with their own name, or share with someone they know. The company saw about 125,000 social media posts with 96% positive or neutral sentiment.

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By Erin Carson

Erin Carson is a Staff Reporter for CNET and a former Multimedia Editor for TechRepublic.