Celebs used social media for candid dialogue in 2011

From Charlie Sheen's shenanigans to Beyonce's baby, social media kept the spotlight bright

This year celebrities didn't just make headlines because of the movies they were in or because of tabloid photos that caught them doing something outrageous. This year it was because of things that they said or did on the Internet (usually of their own accord.)

It is a public relations' managers nightmare, but social media now allows public figures to speak to their audience without filter.

And while public faux pas' have lost some celebs their endorsement deals or event their jobs (i.e. Gilbert Gottfried and Rainn Wilson), many actually gain street cred from their saucy behavior or off-color remarks.

Here is a look back at 10 of my favorite Internet moments that celebrities were involved in.

1- 'Til Twitter do us part

Things longer than Kim Kardashian's wedding quickly started trending after Kris Humphries and the most well-known Kardashian announced the end of their 72 day marriage.

After a large spectacle centered around the young couple's wedding (from a portion of an E! television reality show to a two-part wedding special), the public quickly lashed out at the now defunct couple using Twitter and creating the hashtag #thingslongerthankimsmarriage.

Essentially, the public was none-too-pleased to learn that the couple allegedly made millions from the TV deals and continued to garner attention at their every move -- and many claimed the whole marriage was just an elaborate stunt.

The Twitter outcry taught many celebrities that the speed and sharp wit of Twitter is second to none.

2- Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis get YouTube invites

Who knew that just posting a YouTube asking out my favorite celebrity might just win me a date. Well for Kelsey DeSantis and Scott Moore, they got just what they were asking for: Hollywood escorts to their respective Marine Corps Balls. 

Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis both gave the affirmative on requests for dates with members of our armed forces.

This was a bright little Zeitgeist in time, while other celebrity moments bordered on the scandalous, this was one of those snippets in Internet history that leaves people with a smile rather than a smirk.

3- Ashton tweeted too soon

We've all done it. Retweeted something we didn't read all the way through or misspelled something or even wrote a tweet we later deleted. Celebrities are no different in the fallibility, except that more people notice and then repost the Twitter errors ad nauseam.

Ashton Kutcher was the latest, in a line of celebrities that have had to apologize and go on a Twitter hiatus because of a tweet that left many people scratching their head and several people enraged.

In the wake of a sex scandal, the @aplusk Twitter handle sent out a message in reference to Penn State firing its coach Joe Paterno for allegedly failing to report a coaching assistant to the police in a sexual abuse charge.

Kutcher's twitter account sent out the tweet: “How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste.”

Kutcher and his wife Demi Moore have been very vocal activists against sexual slavery and violence around the globe and Kutcher's 8.2+ million followers are familiar with the barrage of tweets touting statistics about sexual violence.This passion for protecting women and children from sexual violence made the tweet even more curious to followers.

Eventually Kutcher had to backpeddle and has since handed the passwords over to a social media marketing manager so that he doesn't make the same Twitter mistakes again -- probably a good move Kutch.

4- Louis C.K. proves the online content can sell

Comedian Louis C.K. got more than he asked for this Christmas when he broke through the $1 million mark after just less than two weeks of selling his comedy DRM-free content online (digital rights management-free) for the bargain-basement price of just $5 a person.

This ground-breaking move for an established name to not just self-distribute, but self-edit and offer full-length comedy content for one-quarter of what it would normally go for proved that the power of the Internet and some blunt honesty can reap great rewards.

Befitting a 12 days of Christmas song, on the fourth day that C.K.'s album was available for download, it earned the redheaded comedian $200,000 -- that's after paying to create the content. On the twelfth day, C.K.'s DRM-free content profited more than $1 million.

The $5 download was a risky bet for the comedian that has a show on FX named after him, and in a statement he explained the crux of his experiment. 

For all those that cry out that artists can't compete against online piracy, C.K. showed them that with the right audience, self-distribution online can be extremely lucrative. 

5- Charlie Sheen amasses followers with a hunger for tiger blood

From #AdonisDNA and #tigerblood to the still popular hashtag #winning, Charlie Sheen's online breakdown was, by far, the most watched Internet sensation. 

“I am on a drug.  It’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available because if you try it you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.”

In light of a recent personal battle with drug abuse and a professional battle with producers for his show “Two and a Half Men,” Sheen let anyone with a Twitter account or a computer screen to follow his every word in tweet, YouTube videos and podcasts.

In a single day, Sheen gathered 887,247 followers -- and continued to grow nearly 10,000 every half hour or so until it surpassed two million -- easily securing the Platton-actor the fastest growing Twitter following ever. Ironic or not, this year Sheen was winning at getting media attention.

6- Alec loves Words with Friends more than American Airlines

In case you missed it, Alec Baldwin loves to play Zynga games whilst in transit. Because of his undying love, the 30 Rock star was booted from an American Airlines a few weeks ago and received a lot of response when he tweeted his fury over the debacle.

American Airlines was none-to-pleased to hear about the occurrence either, since the company filed for bankruptcy the same week and had a serious shake-up in the leadership team -- the last thing they needed was a media debacle of Baldwin proportions.

The official tweets from his @AlecBaldwin account gained attention from frustrated travelers and Zynga game players that sympathized with the actor's situation. 

Baldwin then went on to star in an SNL skit about the airline instance and continued keep the dialogue about FAA rules, travel headaches and the addictive nature of Zynga games.

7-  Scarlet Johansson exposed

Hacking was a major theme this year -- and celebrities were often the central focus of these computer intrusions.

In October there was a particularly big arrest of Christopher Chaney of Jacksonville, Florida, for hacking into more than 50 celebrities accounts. 

Dubbed “Operation Hackerazzi," Chaney was charged multiple cybercrimes; not least of which was the leaking of nude pictures of Scarlett Johansson, which he obtained by hacking into her personal e-mail account. All the stolen photos were private. And whether you are Hollywood celebrities living the glamour life or a stay-at-home mom, your nude pictures stored in your phone or computer clearly need to remain private.

Chaney used information shared in the public eye, such as the name of pets, best friends', date of birth, and basically 'guessed' passwords to private accounts -- a great lesson was learned by all celebrities (don't tell us your pet names if those are your passwords.) 

Once inside celebrity account, Chaney would mine private emails and attachments and set up connections that would then automatically forward future emails to accounts he controlled, even bypassing password changes.  

The victims identified in the indictment are Simone Harouche, Mila Kunis from That 70s show, singer Christina Aguilera and actress Scarlett Johansson.

So, for the record celebs, get better passwords and don't store naked pics on your phone. 

8- Beyonce baby announcement

The VMA's might have come and gone without much media coverage -- oh, yeah, except that Beyonce revealed her pregnancy in her live performance. And the announcement didn't just rock the VMA's and those watching the broadcast, it broke Twitter records. 

When the singer announced that she was expecting her first child with husband Jay-Z while the tweets covering the announcement at 10:35 p.m. hit 8,868 tweets per second (TPS). That was the most TPS ever recorded for a single event.  The previous record (7,196 TPS) was made in July during the final moments of the Women's World Cup final when the U.S. women's soccer team lost to  Japan during the last seconds of the game in a penalty shootout.

9- Wanted, dead or alive

Twitter has been the center of serval viral death hoaxes since its inception, but one of the most noted and quickly rebutted this year were the claims that Jon Bon Jovi had died.

The 49-year-old rocker from New Jersey responded to the R.I.P Jon Bon Jovi tweets with a picture of him by a Christmas tree with a sign reading: “Heaven looks a lot like New Jersey Dec. 19, 2011 6:00.” Many other celebrities have had to take to Twitter to quell the rumors of their premature death, but none as fast and with as much humor as Jon Bon Jovi.

I can only imagine that celebrities have to stay up-to-date with the Twitter gossip going around to assure that no one is under the impression that they have passed on if they haven't tweeted in a few hours.

10- Steve Jobs farewell 

As soon as the announcement was made, the Internet swelled with memories and condolences for one of the greatest inventors and designers of the century. Just a little over a month after Steve Jobs officially resigned as CEO of Apple, the company has confirmed that the 56-year-old visionary died and almost instantly hashtags #RIPSteveJobs and #thankyousteve went viral. 

Jobs had been battling pancreatic cancer since 2004 and had previously stated that he would resign from Apple when he could no longer meet his duties as CEO.

Apple created a memorial page in honor of Steve Jobs with an email address (rememberingsteve@apple.com) where visitors sent their thoughts, memories, and condolences.

His death also sped up the release of his first and only authorized biography by Walter Isaacson -- which was the best selling book of the year in paper and digital forms.