Social media can be a real rollercoaster of emotions, from the incredible highs (Welcome to Instagram, Jennifer Aniston!) to the lows of fake news (see the entirety of Donald Trump’s Twitter feed).

Today, we thought we would share some of the most iconic moments of 2019, as told by the people we love to follow, and those who, honestly, we can’t help ourselves…

1. Justin Bieber challenging Tom Cruise to a fight
Last summer, Justin Bieber took to Twitter and challenged Tom Cruise to an MMA fight in an obscure tweet that left us all feeling very confused. Were Tom and Justin really about to fight? Why did he ask him over Twitter?

Justin has since backtracked on his invitation to Tom, telling TMZ that, “It was just a random tweet. I do that stuff sometimes.”

Well thanks for completely befuddling us, Justin. The lesson we can learn from this? Think before you tweet, or you might just leave the world believing that you actually want to fight Tom Cruise.

2. “It’s… Rebekah Vardy’s account!”
In October 2019, history was made by none other than Colleen Rooney, wife of former England footballer, Wayne Rooney. In her statement, Colleen takes us on a journey through her investigations as she tried to find out who was leaking stories from her personal Instagram account to the newspapers.

She shared how she blocked all but one person from viewing her fake stories and tracked it against which ones were sold to the press, all culminating in the claim that made history, “It’s… Rebekah Vardy’s account.”

This statement from Colleen led to meme after meme poking fun at the drama of the situation, likening her to the Mystery Inc. gang and suggesting she needs her own mystery solving TV show.

So what have we learnt from Colleen’s experience? Perhaps that when sharing content as a business or an individual, some things are best kept private. The internet is very quick to trivialise something that may be very important to you and your brand, so maybe run a quick sanity check before you hit publish. Oh, and don’t get on Colleen’s bad side!

3. Kylie Jenner’s new skincare demo – the epic fail!
Kylie Jenner launched her new skincare line in 2019, but it wasn’t without drama. But then, is anything they do?

Kylie posted a video of herself using her cleanser where viewers can see her applying the product, before rinsing it off and drying her face with a white towel. This should have been fine, except that right after she dries her face, the towel exposed, clearly covered in foundation marks.

Fans were outraged at her posting what should have been a genuine product demonstration, all the while wearing a full face of makeup. If this isn’t a lesson in the importance of brand integrity in the modern marketplace, I don’t know what is.

4. Storming Area 51
If you used social media at all last year, you’ll be familiar with the Area 51 memes, which stemmed from a joke Facebook Event named ‘Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us’. The group’s leaders invited people to storm Area 51 in Nevada in an attempt to ‘find the aliens’ that the US government was supposedly hiding from the world in there.

Cue endless memes of rescue aliens, painting a colourful picture of our world post alien-liberation. Here we see the sheer power of social media, and how even the most downright bizarre ideas can turn into worldwide news.

Two million people RSVP’d to this event, causing the FBI to raid the creator’s home. Sadly for the aliens, when it came to showtime in Nevada, a pitiful crusade of less than a hundred people turned up to rescue them.

Needless to say, the mission was unsuccessful, this time…

Yes: 2019 was a weird and wonderful year, and we would like to thank social media for keeping us entertained whilst we pretended to be engrossed in a spreadsheet or avoided eye contact with the stranger on the train.

Our biggest tip when it comes to social media? Think before you post, consider how the audience will receive your message and if that is how you would like to be perceived. Your brand is your business and so you want to create customer advocacy and loyalty, online and in real life.

Ultimately though, if you take just one thing away today, let it be this: Don’t tweet that you want to fight Tom Cruise unless you actually do. It’s weird.

Thank you to our guest Blogger Chantelle Davison – Choice Words By Chantelle