The coming of the new year holds significance for many people. It is a chance to wipe the slate clean and reflect on the past year, mostly all of our broken resolutions. So while we are promising to work out more, do good deeds, stop our bad habits, and whatever else we can think of to keep ourselves busy in the Winter, we need to remember what we can learn from 2014.

And that brings us to, of course, social media. Some of our favorite platforms released their most popular trends of 2014. Let's explore. 

YouTube: Video Killed It (In A Good Way)

Video will be the marketer's choice in 2015. With that being said, we need to see what people flocked to this year to either learn what to do better or what not to do. Luckily for us, YouTube released its global trends for 2014. 

Top Videos Of 2014

Click through the videos to see what the viewers love. Something that you may not think anyone on YouTube loves are the ads. However, there is a top list of favorite ads too. 

Top YouTube Ads of 2014

What are our favorites? Personally, I love Play Like a Girl. I even shared it on my own Facebook. Turns out people love ads afterall. 

Facebook: Move Over YouTube

Now that you finally finishing watching all of those YouTube clips, let it sink in that Facebook is actually becoming more popular in terms of video sharing. Don't scoff, more page owners are uploading videos directly to Facebook instead of sharing it with a YouTube link. 

There are constant changes with this beloved platform that are keeping us on our toes. Some people this year even got fed up enough to throw the whole thing in the garbage, but luckily, others stood their ground. 

So, what has been going on with Facebook in 2014? 

Most Talked-About Topics in the US

1. Ebola virus outbreak
2. Ice Bucket Challenge
3. Robin Williams
4. Super Bowl
5. Michael Brown/Ferguson
6. World Cup
7. Conflict in Gaza
8. US midterm elections
9. Malaysia Airlines
10. ISIS

Most Checked-Into Places in the US

1. Disney properties
2. Universal Studios Hollywood
3. Times Square
4. Yosemite National Park
5. Grand Canyon National Park
6. Yellowstone National Park
7. Yankee Stadium
8. Las Vegas Strip
9. Hollywood Walk of Fame
10. Madison Square Garden

Top Global Topics of 2014

1. World Cup
2. Ebola virus outbreak
3. Elections in Brazil
4. Robin Williams
5. Ice Bucket Challenge
6. Conflict in Gaza
7. Malaysia Airlines
8. Super Bowl
9. Michael Brown/Ferguson
10. Sochi Winter Olympics
     

Twitter: #YearOnTwitter

Like Facebook, Twitter decided to release their social stats on their blog post #YearOnTwitter. What struck a chord with our fellow tweeters? 

World Cup: The biggest sports story in 2014, especially on Twitter. Fans, players, teams and media sent over 672 million Tweets during the month-long tournament. At its peak, there were 618,725 Tweets sent per minute — the largest peak we measured this year — when Germany (@DFB_Team) took home the championship.

#BringBackOurGirls: In response to a mass kidnapping in Nigeria, millions of Tweets were sent mentioning #BringBackOurGirls. This map visualizes the hashtag’s global spread over a two-week period.

#IndyRef: Scottish citizens used Twitter to say “yes” or “no” regarding a referendum on independence from the UK in the days leading up to the vote in September. This interactive map of geotagged “yes” or “no” Tweets shows the global nature of the conversation, which spread well beyond Scotland. Fom the first debate through polling day, there were more than 3.75 million Tweets about the referendum.

Hong Kong protests: When citizens of Hong Kong gathered to protest governmental electoral reforms, characterized by the hashtag#occupycentral, people over the world took to Twitter to add their thoughts. There were more than 2.3 million Tweets about what became known as the#UmbrellaRevolution. Here are the most shared photos, and here’s how the event played out on Twitter.

#BlackLivesMatter: There were more than 18 million Tweets about the#Ferguson protests in August, as charted in this visualization. In the hours following the grand jury’s decision in November, there were 3.5 million Tweets from across the U.S. Also tied to a similar grand jury decision in New York, this map shows how powerfully the hashtags #ICantBreathe and#BlackLivesMatter shaped the conversation on Twitter.

Twitter mentioned their most popular conversations above on their blog. 

Unlike Facebook, Twitter compiled this using conversations and hashtags. This platform is known for its limited characters, cutting edge news, and most recently the global dialogs created from current events such as #BringBackOurGirls and #BlackLivesMatter. 

When we bring in 2015 and make goals for the new year, we need to remember which voices were most prominent on which platforms. YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter-- despite being extremely popular with similar users -- all shared different stories. To effectively speak to our audience, we need to know what they love to view and what is important to hear. 

It is time to sort out the junk advertising and create solid conversations. We are looking forward to the new year.