Back to the Future: Social Media through the Ages.
How has the social media industry changed over the years for social media managers?
Social Media… it can be the simplest topic, or the most complex, depending on the person. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE…those who are old enough to remember the beginning or those who are young enough to understand the evolution. From the rapid growth to the slow decline we will recap the changes in the Social Media realm and how Social Media Managers stay connected. Changes in social behavior and technological upgrades found social media at the forefront of communication today. Let’s take it all the way back to the early 2000s, the BIG BOOM(of social media).
In the early 2000s Social Media hit the scene with Myspace, Youtube, and Facebook being all the rage for the sole purpose of being able to share personal and creative content: being in the public eye (Esteban Ortiz-Ospina: The Rise of Social Media). Although TV owned the branding space social media quickly found its connectivity to reach mass markets during the “public “era, with businesses realizing its power and capitalizing on it (Kate Young — 3 Ways Social Media Usage has Evolved). This saturated the market with many commercials and ads that overwhelmed the consumer resulting in passive networking. Passive networking voiced the privacy and safety concerns of the platforms and thus shifted us into the present era of private usage (Social Media Strategy, Ch.1). Consumers now lead the conversation. 21st century generations interests lie with protecting their reputation, thus being selective about brands they associate. Social media creates a sense of belonging or connection to others, developing an easy solution to find the community and correlating brands that fit your lifestyle (Matt Banner — How Social Media has Evolved or the Last 12 Years) & (10 Important 2020 Social Media Trends You Need To Know).
It is important to understand the impact user psychological shift has had on the way social media managers do their job. The shift from public to private requires a higher level of engagement with consumers (Abhimanyu Arora — How Social Media Changes the Way Business Operates). Basic human interaction and understanding their needs is all it takes to increase loyalty. Today, consumers will actively seek information through media platforms; business transparency through personal conversations in real time like messenger, comments, or reviews; and customer services representatives accomplish the public information needs (Social Media Strategy, Ch.1) & (Abhimanyu Arora —How Social Media Changes the Way Business Operates). Using public information, we create data analytics to understand the trends social media follows.
“LESS CONTENT CREATION and MORE CONTENT CONSUMPTION” — Kate Young
Currently the trend is less content creation and more content consumption leaving a gap for organizations to fill (Kate Young — 3 Ways Social Media Usage has Evolved). Human brains are wired to share information (Matt Banner — How Social Media has Evolved or the Last 12 Years)and thoughts on anything producing emotions. Organizations that step outside of the core business and produce pure entertainment are more likely to be remembered and searched. The ability to produce entertainment effectively and efficiently is all thanks to technological updates within the platforms as personal interests of consumers change.
Mental to Physical Change
Just imagine the old platforms today. The clutter on facebook, the boxy look on Instagram, ONLY HAVING 130 CHARACTERS ON TWITTER.
Fortunately, as we grow and develop so does social media. Those platforms that have stayed on top as the most utilized have only done so because of their technological updates following consumer trends (Esteban Ortiz-Ospina: The Rise of Social Media).
Over time social media has changed their look from bland to sleek while being more user friendly. This increases usability by the masses, incorporates new features such as in-platform purchasing, discovery page, and handles the rapid growth of users. Today platforms offer an array of options to connect with everyday consumers, giving social media managers the ability to boast their brand and engage with users. Let’s start it off with the #1 used platform at 3 billion plus users and the most universally utilized (Esteban Ortiz-Ospina: The Rise of Social Media)– FACEBOOK. They shifted from a public viewing platform to a more group-centric connectivity based on specific interests and the occasional life update (Dalvin Brown: Remember Vine: These Social Network Sites Defined the Past Decade). Back in the day facebook used to do light advertising through target marketing based on a profile’s demographics and interests. Although they still use this tactic today it has been more refined with use of promotions to reach outside of the local demographics and used in conjunction with organic marketing. On the other hand, their counter partner Instagram is the hub for visual storytelling with over 1 billion users (Esteban Ortiz-Ospina: The Rise of Social Media). Connected, these two platforms share many similarities but Instagram, pushed society into the influencer era and being in the business of photo & video sharing while obsessing over likes. Neither site had the ability to connect with consumers as easily as they do today. This is due to the structural changes in the technology but also the social behavior changes with the consumers being “less active, but still scrolling” (Dalvin Brown: Remember Vine: These Social Network Sites Defined the Past Decade).
Twitter was the first to offer a level of transparency that no one considered…giving their audience a glimpse into the daily lives of others. Twitter adjusted quickly in their time of rapid growth with implementation of their mobile platform for on the go usage (Dalvin Brown: Remember Vine: These Social Network Sites Defined the Past Decade). They created the concept of the #hastag and trending topics worldwide, morphing from key words to specific storylines (news, sports, music, etc.) and phrases bringing volumes of support. Finally, the implementation of photos and videos on the site saved Twitter, considering 50% of their current viewed content is image and video based (Esteban Ortiz-Ospina: The Rise of Social Media). Twitter is still widely popular because its theory of short and sweet — getting straight to the point which correlates to society’s short attention span.
#twitterisstillrelvant especially for social media managers who need to be up to date with current trends and public wants/needs.
Forgotten sites like Myspace and Vine to the popularity of Tik Tok and Snapchat, social media really is survival of the fittest. With 1-in-3 people using social media globally (Esteban Ortiz-Ospina: The Rise of Social Media) you must be willing to quickly adapt following trends to hold interests of expanding demographics. Social media grew from a niche market to a global phenomenon in the matter of 10 years, it has something for everyone. It provides opportunity for small business and big corporations to level the playing field. It has reimagined the way we communicate and do business, just remember less is more. Consumers are more likely to engage on a level of trust, be authentic, be real. Social media puts the FUN in dysFUNctional with constant changes, new lingo, and crazy features!
Social Media isn’t going away, Managers stay on your toes, you never know what platform will be next.
