Views
Social media is a huge part of our everyday lives but there is still so much that the average joe doesn’t even know. Well, do not fret, because we’re here to fill you with enough social media trivia that you’ll ace that random general knowledge question on your local pub’s quiz.
So, here’s 5 random facts about social media you didn’t know.
Tweet tweet
Did you know that, arguably, one of the most famous birds in the world is called Larry?
That’s right! Twitter’s iconic logo has a name (and quite a sweet story behind it too). According to the Huffington Post in 2012, Larry the bird was named after former NBA player, Larry Bird, who actually played for Biz Stone’s (Twitter co-founder to you and I) home-state team [1].
Great minds think alike
LinkedIn is a renowned professional social media platform where people regularly share anything from inspirational career stories to a (humble) brag about their skills and capabilities.
However, some words feature a littttle more than others. And by that, we mean a lot. Every year, since 2010, LinkedIn has published the “Top Ten LinkedIn Buzzwords” [2] that appear on most people’s personal profiles.
So, here’s what grabs the top spots. Specialised and experienced took first and second place, with leadership falling just behind in 2018 [2]. So maybe this is handy to note next time you update your profile.
Are you guilty of any of these? Well, they do say great minds think alike.
The OG name of Snapchat
Did you know that Snapchat wasn’t the original name of the global social media platform?
Fun fact for you – the app was first launched under the name “Picaboo” in July 2011 [3], which quickly changed to Snapchat just months later for the relaunch. Well I never.
Man’s best friend
Instagram now has over a billion users who have uploaded a mind-boggling 40 billion photos and videos since launching [4], but the really interesting bit is where it all began.
The first photo to ever be posted to Instagram was by co-founder Kevin Systrom who photographed a stray dog in Mexico [5]. Posted back in July 2010, Kevin’s test post currently sits on nearly 116,000 likes and continues to draw interaction each day.
Give Kevin Systroms image a like here.
Awesome news
Liking something on social media is now part of our everyday lives, defining how we interact with the digital world around us. But was it always going to be a like button? What about the “cool” button. Nah? The “fab” button. Still no? Well, what about the “awesome” button…?
Turns out, the like button that we all have to come to know was almost called “awesome” [6]. A Facebook engineer told the story on a Quora thread, detailing how it was all ready to launch when Zuckerberg pulled the plug, preferring “like” instead.
There’s a great Facebook post from back in February 2009 that details this launch, a strange read when you consider how far the concept has come….
Sources
[1] Huffington Post: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/twitter-bird-has-a-name_n_1306405
[3] Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapchat
[4] WordStream: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/04/20/instagram-statistics
[5] BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45640386
[6] TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2010/10/05/awesome-this-post/
Want better?
Let’s talk
