The first 31 days of 2016 have not disappointed on social media. From iconic images, viral trends and big announcements it is tipped to be a big year for digital. What is your standout moment for social media in January 2016?  

A viral video from Casey Neistat

As avid fans of the Vlogs and videos produced by New York based Casey Neistat we did not fail to miss his epic snowboarding video. In fact, it quickly became very hard not to notice this video. Clips were shown on BBC News as well as news broadcasters from around the world. Meanwhile Casey passed the 2 million YouTube subscriber mark and gain a very impressive 12 million views of his video in just over one week! In case you don’t know who he is, Casey Neistat has gradually become an online sensation, starting off in March 2015 posting daily vlogs via his YouTube channel. By January 2016 he’d amassed an impressive 300 vlogs!  

This is Bill. Be like Bill

If you use Facebook on a regular basis you have most likely seen this Meme. “The app in question is a generator that creates a personal version of the “Be Like Bill” meme with the user’s name.” USA Today Simple to use and rather witty this Meme quickly spread over Facebook. However, it has recently been criticised for security issues although these have been denied by Blobla. The ‘Be Like Bill’ phenomena began around late 2015 but really took off in January. A simple little stick figure which encouraged people to ‘Be Like Bill’ in certain situations.  

Facebook rolls out live videos

If you live in the US and have an iPhone you are now able to share live videos with your friends and family. Live videos are essential a real-time broadcast. Facebook began their trial of the concept in December 2015, making it available to public figures and verified pages and plan to roll it out worldwide over the coming months.  

20 million LinkedIn Users

Over the past 12 months, LinkedIn has grown from strength to strength. Recent statistics reflect this as it cements its role as a social media platform for professionals. Joshua Graff, UK Country Manager & Senior Director at LinkedIn announced, “Today I’m thrilled to announce that more than 20 million people are now using LinkedIn in the UK – that’s nearly 60% of the UK’s student and working population”  

Way Back Week

There was a trend a while back on social media called #ThrowBackThursday or #TBT where people would share a photo which was a memory from a month, 2 months, a year or 5 years ago. Way Back Week has stepped into its footsteps and involved Facebook users sharing mainly childhood photos of themselves, whether cute, funny or embarrassing.   Have we missed any major social media developments for January? Please let us know and make sure you share this blog with anyone that you think may be interested. Thanks for reading.