THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Today, everyone knows and uses social media. Even the most remote parts of the world
have heard about Facebook and Twitter, and they probably use it every day too. However, it
wasn't like this a decade ago. Not as many people had internet access at that time, and
smartphones were not even introduced in the market. Today, most of us can't live without social
media. In fact, we scroll through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest at least thrice every
hour.
According to Merriam-Webster, social media is defined as “forms of electronic
communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users
create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content
(such as videos).
In less than a generation, social media has evolved from direct electronic information
exchange, to virtual gathering place, to retail platform, to vital 21st-century marketing tool. How
did it begin? How has social media affected the lives of billions of people? How have businesses
adapted to the digital consumer lifestyle? How do marketing professionals use social media? It’s
all part of the story of social media’s ongoing evolution.

A Brief History of Social Media

The first social media site was a website called ‘Six Degrees’ that was launched in 1997.
It allowed its users to create a profile and then befriend other users. From Six Degrees, the
internet emerged into the era of instant messaging and blogging.
This service was followed in 2001 by Friendster. These rudimentary platforms attracted
millions of users and enabled email address registration and basic online networking.
LinkedIn was yet another website that was one of the very first social media websites. A
lot of social networking sites we have today are inspired from and are similar to LinkedIn. Even
back in 2002, when LinkedIn was founded, it was aimed towards professionals who wanted to
network with one another, and functions the way even today.
In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, which went on to become a social media
giant. Even after all these years, Facebook is the number one social networking site there is,
boasting over a billion users.
 Twitter founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and others as a
microblogging site, by 2020
By 2010, social media was evolving fast as Instagram and Pinterest pioneered a focus on
curation instead of conversation.
Instagram founded in 2010 by Stanford graduate Kevin Systrom as a photo-sharing site
and purchased by Facebook in 2012, Instagram has more than 1 billion users worldwide.
Pinterest founded in 2010 by iPhone app developer Ben Silbermann as a visual “pin board,”
Pinterest became a publicly traded company in 2019 and has more than 335 million active
monthly users.
By 2010, most people were on social but sponsored ads hadn’t yet permeated our
newsfeeds. Facebook released their first-ever mobile app, and customers could “become a fan”
of a brand they loved — thus launching Facebook as a core advertising tool for businesses.
Gradually, we saw social media finding its place in our pockets and quickly becoming an
extension of ourselves, rather than just an app on our devices.
Snapchat Founded in 2011 by a trio of Stanford students — Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown,
and Bobby Murphy — this video-sharing service introduced the concept of “stories,” or
serialized short videos, and “filters,” run for informative digital effects, often based on location.
Tiktok Founded in 2016 by Chinese tech company ByteDance, this short-form video-
sharing site was merged with the U.S.-based mobile app Musical.ly in 2018 and became popular
with American teens and young adults. As of early 2020, it had more than 800 million users
worldwide.
As of 2017, there are thousands of social media platforms. Some platforms are more
popular than others but each platform has a loyal audience, no matter however small. For
example, Instagram caters to an audience that communicates through photographs while Twitter
is perfect for those who like to keep their communication to the point. With innovative and
exciting technology just around the corner, the further evolution of social media will be
interesting to witness.