
Intel capitalized on social media's dirty little secret to move up in the ranks: that the thing that makes social media go round is that everyone really just loves to talk about themselves. Aptly titled and sort of sounding like a whine, the company released their "What About Me" application which, as The Dachis Group's Brian Kotlyar explains,"aggregates a user's social media data into an infographic explaining trends and patterns in their social media usage." (The application told your blogger that he posts far too much about eating and movies.) And as you may have guessed, Twitter lit up with people talking about themselves, their habits, and were eager to show off their nifty infographics. What contributed to the rest of Intel's bump isn't exactly as exciting or as narcissistic as "What About Me", as the company relied on the tried-and-true method of tacking polls and surveys onto various social media platforms. "This is a classic way to spur significant engagement in a hurry as polls and surveys consistently outperform other types of content from an engagement perspective."

Adobe's newest version of Photoshop (the sacred tool of bloggers, magazine art departments, and meme creators) was downloaded over 500,000 times in its first week of release, which is quite an impressive number. But its social impact, from the hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and conversations shared by thousands on Facebook and Twitter dwarf that number. In a way, Adobe's social media push does make sense in that plenty of Photoshop's users would be inclined to publicly weigh in on the product considering so many bloggers, journalists, and media types (the kind of people always crowding up your social media feeds) rely heavily on the product. "The unique nature of Adobe's audience absolutely played a role in the brand's success this week," Kotlyar adds. "Adobe's constituency of Web-oriented and design-focused followers gives the company a leg up whenever they make a major announcement or launch a campaign."

The hype-machine for Disney-Pixar's, latest movie, Brave has begun (it helps main character is totally into archery just like the Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen) and it won't be soon before Disney's loyal fanbase starts chatting. But the bump that Disney needed last week to take the top spot in the social media rankings was thanks in part to its older films: Lion King and Finding Nemo. "Last week one particular image of a beloved character, Bubbles, garnered 42,946 likes, 959 comments and 2,815 shares," Dachis analyst Allison Squires said, pointing to Disney's expansive and extensive viral reach. Squires does mention that many of the comments and shares that Disney images produce are the equivalent to "Squuuuuueeee ________!!!! (insert name of beloved tertiary character)". Disney's boost was also helped by ABC family showing the classic and hand-drawn Lion King last week, which ushered in the release of its sequels on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download.