From Fidget Spinners to Dabbing: Social Media in 2017

Another year, another slightly bizarre set of trends in social media. 2017, however, has been particularly interesting, with some weird and some wonderful crazes gripping creators, consumers and brands alike.

This has included K-Pop making waves in the UK, the fidget spinner phase and ASOS hauls, to demands for inclusive make-up products, embracing androgyny and the move towards social justice and mental wellbeing on social media. The year has seen some trends I hope will stay around and some that we will probably look back on like a past penchant for only wearing fuchsia pink: why?!

The best part of this year has been seeing how influencer marketing enables brands to get on board with these trends – tapping into the engaged audiences of influencers to spread brand messages to those who would truly be interested in them. I hope we’ll see more of this in 2018.

To break this year down to a few crucial moments, here are my top creator trends from 2017.

Fidget Spinner videos

Love them, hate them, fidget spinners were a huge part of 2017. The trend that started in primary schools soon infiltrated many a boardroom, and I’m sure most of us can claim to have seen one used in a formal meeting setting.

YouTubers are no different – but are perhaps are a little more creative. As spring came to an end, videos on YouTube sprang up left, right and centre – getting weirder and wackier each time. My favourite is this trick shot compilation, below, from Dude Perfect.

Mental health

Less a trend and more a movement, 2017 is the year that many creators started feeling comfortable talking openly about mental health. This reflects wider social trends, in which people are being encouraged to remove stigma around mental health issues. With a large youth market, YouTubers have been leading the charge here, I’m pleased to say. Several creators came out with their struggles with depression and anxiety, helping many others to come to terms with their own issues.

Notably, Lynx got on board and opened up conversations around mental health in men with their #IsItOkForGuys campaign, getting celebrities involved to back the message.

Destruction videos

After the Hydraulic Press channel became a little more mainstream, made popular by Reddit, videos of people breaking stuff really took off. Creators rushed to smash their possessions to smithereens, all in the name of subscriber boosts and entertainment. Sounds weird, but it’s oddly satisfying to watch.

Oddly satisfying

You’ll see what I did there. But, in an entirely different vein of thought, relaxing videos of processes that are strangely enjoyable to watch have been everywhere this year.

Embracing androgyny

Gender stereotyping is no longer cool. John Lewis caused something of a furore when it was announced it would no longer be selling ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ clothes for children, but unisex is the new norm.

Influencers are no exception here – with many fashionable creators opting for ‘boyfriend’ styles, the boys on Love Island embracing nail varnish, brands like Gucci ditching separately gendered runway shows – creators continue to hold a mirror up to society. In the video below, Mark Ferris – known for his friendship with fellow influencer Zoella, try on a unisex ‘haul’.

UGC

This year, several brands decided it was time to launch a campaign based on reposting images from users. While this can be great fun, a few brands, like The National Lottery and Walkers [below] learned the hard way that there should always be a human checking any posts a brand retweets, when their UGC campaigns were hijacked.

Dabbing

Yes, I’ve included dabbing. Dabbing has reached the far corners of the world, and social media got it there – perhaps inspired by Jake Paul’s “dab on the haters” – memed by many in 2017.

ASOS hauls

Or, ‘My girl/boyfriend buys my ASOS order’. A significant other buys an order on ASOS without checking with their partner, and hilarity ensues.

This is a great hit for ASOS, where people film ASOS hauls regularly to much interest from fans. Yes, some items are not kept, but the popularity of these videos speaks volumes about how much people enjoy shopping with ASOS. Creating a product that people can be creative with on social media is a feat that other brands should be looking to emulate (but proceed with caution – see ‘UGC’ section).

Gaming videos

Gaming is a huge part of social media – particularly YouTube, but also platforms like Twitch – making this an incredibly lucrative market. This year for instance, Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds gameplay has proven a worldwide hit. For brands, getting involved with gaming can perform wonders – for example, Mattesons used social media to associate gaming after school with their snacks, involving the gaming community in a mission to unlock clues to an AI snack bot.

Dan Middleton – the highest-earning YouTuber of 2017 – uploaded a gaming video a couple of days ago that has already racked up well over a million views. With many of the world’s highest-paid YouTubers coming from a gaming background, this is definitely a space advertisers should watch closely.

2017 has been a great year for creativity on social media. Whether all of these trends will stick is up for debate, but the ongoing power of social media and influencers to change culture is evident. I’m looking forward to another year of seeing what creators are talking about, from the micro (like fidget spinners) to the really important, macro stuff, such as equality and mental health. With a group of creatives all working to post their best work and have fun with each new trend, influencer marketing is set to be one of the most interesting industries for the coming year – and it’s all down to the ingenuity and excitement of the creators themselves.