By Laura Petrolino
Ok, let’s be real here…..
It’s the first day back after the holidays, and even if you worked all the way through—it’s everyone else’s first day back. This week is going to be crazy, and painful, and exciting all at once.
So while I have a list half the size of New Hampshire of blog post ideas I’ve thought up during the last couple of weeks, today I’m going to give your brain a bit of a break, a little bit of fun, and the best collection of random best of 2015 posts you’ve ever seen.
The Best of the Best of 2015
Best of 2015 posts are everywhere right now. There is a best of 2015 post (or several) for every interest, niche, social network, food, clothing item, silly antic, and Kardashian out there.
So I thought I’d combine a bunch of best of 2015 post in one spot for you.
Admittedly, these all revolve around things I’m interested in…..but hey, if you aren’t interested in things such as the best of 2015 in animal tweets, then there is something wrong with you and you should just go elsewhere.
So with that said….here we go.
Best of Marketing, Communications, and PR
Ok, ok…this is a communications blog, so I guess I sort of have to include this section.
But here’s the problem when really looking at best of 2015, or best of anything in this category—most of the time there isn’t much valuable data or PR metrics to back it up. So it’s either based on some random “algorithm” or pure opinion.
Being the fine purveyor of best of 2015 posts that I am, I just don’t think that’s good enough.
A lot of the campaigns highlighted in of the best of 2015 communications and PR compilations left me with questions…questions I’m going to try to answer in future blogs.
For now, I like to look at some of the curations with “softer” or incomplete data as a source for inspiration vs. evaluation. What worked for this campaign? What didn’t? What would I do differently? How can I use these ideas/themes/platforms for my own organization or client?
When you look at it that way, articles such as this month-by-month collection of engaging brand content become much more valuable.
I also really enjoy the best of advertising compilations each year—again for the creative inspiration and brain triggers they give me. AdWeek does a great job curating these—looking at everything from commercials, to outdoor ads, and PSAs.
You should also check out many of our twelve days of Spin Sucks posts, including: Eleven PR professionals to follow, eight PR trends, seven PR blogs, six must-watch PR webinars, five PR books, four PR podcasts, and the one PR tool you need for 2016.
Best of Books 2015
Um…duh. If you read this blog, you know we are big on reading here at Spin Sucks so no best of 2015 compilation would be complete without a best of books section. There are so many best of book posts, it’s hard to know where to start. For me, that starts to feel overwhelming, because…you know…reading isn’t my full-time job.
A mystery of time and space occurs as a result. I have no solution to this, other than to spam you with a lot of best of book posts so you suffer the same agony. Misery does love company, after all!
- The 10 best from the Washington Post.
- The New Yorker’s Best of 2015 round-up is always a must see (and read).
- GoodReads 2015 Choice Awards breaks down every genre.
- The New York Times’ top 10.
- And, of course, Brain Pickings’ selections.
Best of 2015 Animals
Because come on….animals are the best and you know it!
You already met some of our tweeting animals, but how can you say no to chic furry friends on Instagram? All of whom are much more stylish than I am…but I digress.
And then there are videos, lots of amazing videos. I mean really, if you can watch a video an animal doing something cute, why would you not?
There were also some great (and weird) animal stories in 2015. Not to mention social media animal celebrities (who no doubt are cooler than you).
Best of 2015 Randoms
Some absolutely random best of 2015 compilations, which I find fun:
- Like The Onion’s annual review;
- The weirdest scientific discoveries;
- Top sports moments; and
- ESPN also had an awesome best 2015 football plays episode in their Sport Science series.
Ok, I’ll stop now! What best of 2015 posts would you add?
(Oh, and if you are having a hard time getting back into the work groove after the holidays, check out Corina’s advice from last week).
Cheers to a happy, successful, and all around rockstar 2016!