Social media is serving as the backbone of digital businesses. Its constant rise has fueled the communication channels like never before, and it is getting advanced with digital technologies. The hungriness of communication between humans has defined social media technically.
By incorporating digital technologies effectively, personal connections can receive nourishment at an enhanced scale.
Today, everyone knows about social media platforms and uses them to connect with his loved ones. But life was not this way a decade ago! People didn’t have smartphones and the internet with them all the time, which made life relatively hassle-free compared to today’s busy life.
Evolution of Social Media – What to Expect in the Future?
The evolution of social media has made lives go easier yet more complicated at the same time. Apart from the enhanced connections, social media has generalized the definition of modern life. Many of us cannot even manage to spend a single day without social media in this digital and competitive world.
Let’s share a strange fact; we usually scroll through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at least thrice each hour!
Yes, at least thrice every hour, and many of us can relate to this fact. Sounds relatable? The reason is the urge to grow new connections and a healthy professional network around oneself.
Truth must be spoken; social media was launched as the first platform with the help of which people could stay in touch with friends and family. But it evolved with time, and now social media is used for several reasons.
Apart from sharing photos, videos, news, and networking, social media has been commendable in providing career opportunities. You can share the status updates, participate in the webinars and discussions, market your product, and engage with the customers.
Social media platforms have taken the world of the internet by storm, which will not lessen in the upcoming years. We live in the digital world where Facebook alone has more than 2.4 billion active users. And how strange it is that around 2 million people are actively using Facebook!
The evolved face of social media has become the need of an hour, and it has also affected casual users and businesses.
In this quick guide, we have compiled the essentials you need to know about social media and its evolved shape around the globe. Have a look at the roadmap.
How Has Social Media Evolved Over the Years?
The explosive growth of social media started taking place more than twelve years ago. But the actual invention happened back in the 1800s when the telegraph was launched for the ease of communication among the audience. Dating back to the 1990s when social websites were launched – the concept of social media was born.
After the establishment of reliable and faster internet, this became easier for social websites to pave their way into the lives of humans. And this concept eventually transformed into the giants of social media platforms.
Founded back in 1997, Six Degrees was the first-ever social networking website, and Friendster followed it in 2001. During this year, the registration for emails and online chattings rose. In 2003, Google emerged as the tech merchandise, and it simplified the definition of reliable and quicker internet with the bulk of information.
However, the entire game was changed when LinkedIn was officially launched in 2002 to provide job searchers and career-oriented users with reliable opportunities. In 2006, Myspace became another popular social media website that allowed users to share music content directly on their profiles.
But Facebook in 2008 eclipsed every other social media platform and gained recognition in very little time. By 2012, social media became an evolved and enhanced medium used for communication and sharing purposes. By 2022, we all have become avid users of different social media platforms.
Popular social media management tool like Social Champ is also known worldwide for transforming the business automation process and socials. The entire journey of social media and its evolving cycle has enabled casual users and businesses to streamline their communications and operations respectively.
Why Has Social Media Become Way So Essential?
Social media has become an integral part of businesses’ activities and commoners’ lives. From old-school traditional user interfaces to the seamless and sleekly designed visuals – the evolution of social media has been impactful positively and negatively at the same time.
The growth of social media has been staggering, and more than 3.8 billion people worldwide are using social media daily. It means that social media platforms eventually have 3.5 billion people online every time. Talking about the rapid and vast adoption of technologies, this is quite assured that the world of social media has noticeably changed our lives.
Social media and the internet have been potent tools for sharing news, videos, images, opportunities, jobs, partners, and information. In this digital and competitive world, one cannot think about living without social media platforms in this digital and competitive world.
Whether keeping up with friends or searching for an opportunity, social media comes in handy. However, the scenarios were not like this a decade ago! The social platforms that we use today were not launched back in the 2000s, and there were relatively limited options to connect with others.
Be it the Instagram Automation or the auto-posting features of Facebook, social media has gone advanced for businesses and ordinary users. It allows enterprises to develop intelligent and tech-optimized features to connect with the audience. Using an app that knows about your choices and personal favorites is pretty cool and innovative!
We all have reliable and quick internet connections at homes and workplaces, and of course, businesses are entirely digital nowadays – we must stay on social media. It would not only broaden up our thinking horizons but will also provide us with the opportunity to make things easier.
Giants of Social Media – A Timeline
Now let’s narrow down the social media giants that have continued to thrive in the world for the past decade and will continue to do so in the upcoming years. Let’s dive in.
Six Degrees - 1997
In 1997, the first-ever social media website was launched named Six Degrees. It was one of the first websites to enable users to set up a profile and create a friendship with another person. Six elements worked on the web contact model and allowed the audience to connect. However, the website shut down in 2001.
MySpace And LinkedIn - 2003
MySpace was the first social media website that hit the milestone of reaching up to a million users in 2006. But it later got overshadowed after the launch of Facebook. LinkedIn was also launched in 2003, and it was geared specifically towards professional networking. The platform has kept its primary function the same until now!
Facebook - 2004
Facebook entered the social media scene in 2004, and the rest is history. Now, Facebook is known as the new definition of social media. Naming Facebook as the giant of the social media world would not be wrong. Even after more than 15 years into the business, Facebook stands tall with 2 billion active users.
YouTube - 2005
Coming to the video-sharing platform YouTube that is owned by Google. Users of YouTube can create their channel as well, and after reaching a certain number of subscribers and views, they would be able to earn money. YouTube enjoys more than one billion users globally who collectively watch 1 billion hours of videos per day.
Twitter - 2006
In 2006, Twitter made its appearance in the social media world. Working on the concept of short texts on the web, Twitter made it easier for global brands to interact with the audience. Now, enterprises and the commoners can work on the automation of Twitter by learning how to schedule tweets and post them without an issue.
WhatsApp - 2009
WhatsApp is another great name defining social media, owned by Meta (Facebook). The application is meant to take text messaging and communication to a whole new level. Upon signing up with a cell phone number, you can instantly start messaging and media sharing with your contacts in the list.
Instagram and Pinterest - 2010
Let’s talk about the premium photo-sharing and celebrity social media platform, Instagram. It is one of the world’s largest used social media forums to share photos and videos. The audience also uses Pinterest to search, save, and share the images on the pinboards from where you can collect so many ideas.
Snapchat - 2011
How can we even not mention Snapchat, the world’s perfect camera for sure? It was primarily used for the multimedia messages referred to as snaps. Further, it caught the limelight for being highly secured and optimized with the technologies. The audience uses Snapchat to send edited and captioned multimedia messages to their loved ones.
TikTok - 2016
Adding another feather to the hat of social media, TikTok came into the picture in 2016. Originated in China, TikTok is considered the king of short videos. Users can watch, discover, and upload hundreds of personalized and edited clips ranging from 15 seconds to 3 minutes. TikTok has polished the acting skills of so many youngsters too.
A Bright Future of Social Media Is Waiting Ahead
Apart from these social media platforms, there was an evolution in picture-taking techniques as well, and the concept of selfies took a boom. Instagram reels have also become the talk of the town like YouTube shorts and TikToks. The swift changes in the audience’s demand and an outshining development in technology have got their own tale.
Communication and commerce are the two cornerstones that would help social media evolve in the future. The culture will redefine itself in the social media landscape in the upcoming years. Nobody knows if Facebook and Instagram would continue to soar higher than ever before or follow their predecessors. Who knows, will social media maintain itself as per the requirements of technologies or not!
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