Facebook’s 2017 Year in Review

On Wednesday 6 December 2017, social media giants, Facebook, revealed its 2017 Year in Review, highlighting the top ways people came together on Facebook to support one another.

Social Media has become an important tool for people to connect with each other from all over the world, it has never been more prevalent in times of disaster and protest as it allows people to form a unity and bond no matter where in the world they may be. In 2017 people came together to react and talk about important moments and events that happened around the world.

The top three moments that people discussed globally in 2017 were:

• International Women’s Day: This was the #1 most talked about moment in 2017, doubling from last year, with people around the world talking, sharing and posting in celebration of women and related issues.
• Super Bowl 51: Fans around the world turned to their News Feeds to cheer for their favourite teams, celebrate with Lady Gaga and debate the top TV ads, with more than 262 million views of Super Bowl-related videos on the platform.
• Las Vegas Violence: This tragic incident drove conversation from around the world, which in turn motivated more than 3,300 people to offer Community Help through Crisis Response on Facebook.

People also supported one another in times of crisis. The top three moments where we saw people come to each other’s aid were:

• Earthquake in Mexico: The response to this crisis in late September drove the highest number of total interactions within Crisis Response on Facebook of the year, with millions of people marking themselves safe, offering help to their community or donating to the cause.
• Hurricane Harvey: In late August, the community rallied to help those in need by raising more than $20 million, in the biggest fundraising effort for a single crisis in 2017 on Facebook.
• One Love Manchester: The most viewed video and live broadcast on Facebook in 2017, this benefit concert generated over 80 million views and raised more than $450,000 for those affected by the Manchester terror attack.

Finally, people used Facebook to get together in person. The top two ways people connected through these offline moments were:

• Total Solar Eclipse: This celestial moment in August brought the world together through more than 20,000 Facebook Events in more than 80 countries.
• Women’s March on DC: On 21 January The Women’s March on DC brought over 500,000 people together on and offline as the largest Facebook event for a single cause in 2017.

Your Year In Review
Facebook also revealed that starting on 6 December 6th, you may see a personalised video in your News Feed. This video includes moments from this past year that you’ve shared or been tagged in, and compiles them in a short video that can be edited and shared.

Methodology

Facebook highlighted that the top moments of this year’s Year In Review were determined by gathering a list of the top keywords by volume mentioned in a single day on Facebook between January 1st and November 1st, 2017. To identify which topics were unique to 2017, we compared these keywords to the previous year’s maximum single-day volume. This means that keywords like Mother’s Day and Halloween, which typically represent the top moments every year, do not repeatedly appear at the top of the list.

Edited by Dean Workman
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