If working with social media has shown us one thing, it’s that people love to join a conversation. Whether around a trending topic, news segment, or viral hash tag, we at The Practice were interested to look back on the hot talking points of the year so far.

One of the hottest discussions this year has got to be Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign announcement. Her bid to run for the 2016 Elections was announced in a video posted to YouTube, and very quickly sparked a huge amount of divided opinion. The “Yes” camp soon began to use hash tags such as #Hillary and #Hillary2016, but on the opposite side, the hash tag #WhyImNotVotingForHillary gained the most momentum, becoming the number one trending hash tag in the US. The backlash was shortly picked up by the Clinton campaign, who promptly paid for it to be removed from Twitter. This level of censorship clearly shows how much of an impact social media has to ignite controversial talking points which wouldn’t ordinarily be amplified offline.

Aside from adding an extra dimension to news stories, social media brings up some unique points of discussion that wouldn’t ordinarily arise. This year’s prime example has been the subject of #TheDress, which not only spread like wildfire on social media, but also to media headlines too. Back in March, debate surfaced over the colour of a dress, after an image was posted on Tumblr with the question: “Is the dress blue and black or white and gold?” With many undecided over the ambiguous colour, conversation soon skyrocketed, and even Buzzfeed picked up on the surrounding chat. The picture soon went viral, with 4 million total conversations happening around it in over 100 countries worldwide. Conversationalists used the hash tags #TheDress, #WhiteandGold, #BlackandBlue, and later, #DressGate, in their tweets and Facebook posts, with celebrities including Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian weighing in on the debate. The total number of responses showed an even divide, with 369,000 votes for “Black and Blue” and 330,000 votes for “White and Gold”. In the end, it turned out that the dress was in fact black and blue, and that the colour ambiguity was down to the image’s exposure levels. Either way, it was amazing to see how such a small talking point could go viral, and as a result, the dress in question soon sold out!

It is clearly our desire to engage and share our opinions which has led to a number of new social sites emerging, specifically for joining in conversations. Ideapod, for instance, is a recently launched, invite only platform, self-styled, “A place for ideas”. Unlike Twitter, it seems like it will be a site specifically for an audience interested in impactful global affairs, with current users including the UN, the New York Stock Exchange, and the World Economic Forum. And in-depth debates look set to be the focus, with a 1000 character limit for both posts and responses. While we can’t imagine there will be much tolerance for discussion over topics like #TheDress, the emergence of this new platform clearly shows that there is demand for sharing ideas on social media.

What do you think about the way in which social media has opened up the forum for global conversation? Is participating in topical discussion a top priority when it comes to your social media activity? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments on our Facebook page too.