Social Media’s Evolution: What It Means for Brands

Social media is an incredibly powerful tool that needs constant attention. The most recent evolution of social media has people of all media skill levels seeking new information.

Now, more than ever, consumers and companies alike are trying to understand how to use the ever changing social media networks in the most effective way. As marketers, we have found ourselves on the same journey of mastering this ever evolving digital frontier. That’s where the video series “Social Innovators” was born. 

Looking back, we can see that Social Media was founded to increase conversations and communications, closing regional mileage gaps. With that idea, we see the emergence of four pillars in social networking: to inform, educate, inspire and entertain. The ways to execute these four pillars are always evolving and changing.

If you’re committed to enhancing your organic social network, then your strategy needs to evolve and you need to be committed to testing new trends. Trying new things can be scary and failure isn’t fun for anyone. However, it’s through trial and error that brands create authentic engagement and results.

It’s often been stated that to know more about the present or future, you must turn and look back. Here is a quick history lesson on the evolution of social media. 

Social Media’s Evolution: 

• When social media launched all those years ago, it was almost taboo! In 2002, it began when LinkedIn was founded. It now has more than 830 million users worldwide.
• Then came Myspace in 2003 and allowed you to share music, pictures and graphics directly on your profiles. After two years, Facebook eclipsed Myspace and became the first website to gain popularity in so little time. 
• By 2010, everyone was aware of social media, its importance and its benefits.
• Instagram was founded in 2010. It launched as a photo-sharing website, but has transformed into the world’s most visited photo and video sharing website. 
• Then came Vine, which was one of the pioneers of the short form video format. Vine, like MySpace, didn’t survive the evolution. 
• Snapchat saw its rise in popularity in 2014 with the appeal of disappearing messages, pictures and videos. 
• TikTok is the “futuristic” social media platform that launched in 2016. This application allows its users to share short videos. It has gained popularity in almost every corner of the world. The number of users that are on this platform has surpassed 1.5 billion. 
• TikTok has also played a big part in shaping how other older social media sites have made recent changes. 
• For example: Instagram is now prioritizing reels (short, vertical videos) that are similar to TikTok’s short, quirky videos, and even Facebook and YouTube have vertical quick video options similar to TikTok on their social sites.

Social Media is constantly evolving, and if you are still doing it how you’ve always done it, you may be doing it all wrong.

If you’re committed to enhancing your organic social network, then you need to keep up with current trends so you can tap into all the real benefits that these platforms offer. Staying up to date on current trends and social media thought pieces can provide you with a real equal opportunity playing field.

The historical backdrop of social media has been brief, however, it has made a HUGE impact on how businesses and brands communicate today. Fast changes in interest, innovation, trends, culture and methods of communication can be intimidating to the novice social media user. No worries, we got your back.

Stay tuned we will be sharing tips, tricks and new strategies to implement. Till next time, stay innovative.

Julie Wax

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