The Evolution of Social Media: How Did It Begin

Social Media, as the name suggests, is a way for individuals to manage their social circles and connections in the digital world. It is primarily fueled by a human impulse to communicate and make connections. Pew Research Center in 2019 reported that 72% of American adults use some form of social media platform. Back in 2005, when Facebook was starting to gain followers, it was only at 5%.

To access the social media platform and reach out to your friends and loved ones, you need a working internet. If you are looking for one, consider Comcast’s Xfinity. Xfinity Internet has a bunch of deals, all priced according to their locations, that should make your social media browsing smooth for you. These deals also offer lag-free video and music playing, pictures uploading, and emailing a large amount of data.  

Social Media Platform and their brief evolution

The first social media websites were known to be created during the 1980s and ’90s such as CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy. They served as communication services where they introduced their users to communicate through emails, to read bulletin board messages, and have real-time online chatting. Over time, many other social media platforms were created to give a better user experience.

• SixDegrees was known to be the first digital attempt at creating online connections between a large group of people in 1997, but this platform was shut down in 2000 even after attracting millions of users.
• In 2001, Friendster was introduced, attracting a million internet users and there is enabled email registration and basic online networking.
• LinkedIn was founded in 2002 as a social media platform for career-minded professionals. Today it remains a valuable resource for job seekers, for human resources looking to hire, and for others to share their career journey.
• In 2003, MySpace launched, connecting millions of users to share new music directly on their profile. It was the most viewed site in 2006, surpassing Google and Yahoo. However, due to bad management, MySpace “accidentally” deleted all the data from its servers, leading to its downfall. 
• Facebook was launched in 2004, and currently, it has about 1.7 billion users worldwide.
• A news-sharing platform, Reddit was launched in 2005 by twentysomething two individuals, and later, with 300 million users, it has been successful as a social commentary platform.
• In 2006, Twitter started gaining followers. It is known as a microblogging social media platform where users can write a short paragraph of 140 characters which are called tweets. Other users can also comment or reply to those tweets hence creating a thread of a conversation with 140 characters.
• Internet users also use a photo-sharing social media platform called Instagram which was founded in 2010. Today it has over 1 billion users worldwide.
• Snapchat was introduced to the virtual world by three Stanford students in 2011. It is a social media video-sharing platform where users can post “stories” or serialized short videos along with using use “filters” or digital effects.
• Google also attempted to join by creating its own social media platform in 2012 by introducing Google+. However, it hit rock bottom after the private information of 500,000+ users was compromised on Google+.
• Finally, there is TikTok. It was launched by a Chinese tech company called ByteDance in 2016 and it merged with the US-based app Musical.ly in 2018. It is extremely popular among teens and young adults. It was reported that by early 2020, it gained up to 800 million users worldwide.

All of these social media platforms have collectively introduced users to share and communicate their interests and opinions with everyone in the virtual world.

Social Media and Marketing

Although the main goal of social media was to communicate with other individuals, no one anticipated that it would also turn out to be a marketing tool. Social media companies thrived as their user bases grew into millions and they started gaining access to their user’s personal information as well. When users log into a social media website, they not only log in and browse, they also tell the platform their personal information like their names, where they live, where they are at the moment, their likes and dislikes, their opinions, etc. All of this information helps these social media platforms create a picture about you, which they then sell to marketers looking to target specific consumers.

Facebook started giving access to marketers for advertising in early 2006. Other social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, TikTok, etc. also eventually allowed marketers to advertise their services through their platforms. Along with being able to pay social media companies to use their space for advertising, marketers tried other ways to manage their social media presence by creating content and engaging with consumers on their social media platform. It proved to be beneficial for them as it helped their brand grow exponentially. Nowadays, social media platform is a major part in helping businesses to grow and nurture their products and services.

It had been a transformative journey of social media platforms from simply being a way to connect with individuals to create a livelihood out of these connections.