Evolution of Social Media

 In less than a generation, social media has evolved from a direct electronic exchange of information to a virtual meeting point, retail platform, and essential marketing tool of the 21st century.

How did it start? How has social media impacted the lives of billions? How have businesses adapted to the lifestyles of digital consumers? How are marketers using social media? use for? It’s all part of the story of social media’s ongoing evolution.
Pre-internet Roots
In a sense, social media began on May 24, 1844, with a series of electronic dots and dashes tapped out by hand on a telegraph machine.
The first electronic message from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., proved Samuel Morse understood the historic ramifications of his scientific achievement: “What hath God wrought?” he wrote.
A recent article in The Washington Post, “Before Twitter and Facebook, There Was Morse Code: Remembering Social Media’s True Inventor,” details the history and relevance of Morse code, complete with early versions of today’s “OMG” and “LOL.”

While the roots of digital communication run deep, most contemporary accounts of the modern origins of today’s internet and social media point to the emergence in 1969 of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network — the ARPANET.
This early digital network, created by the United States Department of Defense, allowed scientists at four interconnected universities to share software, hardware, and other data.
In 1987, the direct ancestor of today's Internet emerged when the National Science Foundation launched a more robust nationwide digital network called NSFNET. Ten years later, in 1997, the first true social media platform was launched.
Social Site Launch
According to technology news site Digital Trends, "The History of Social Networking," the growth of the Internet in the 1980s and 1990s enabled the introduction of online communication services such as CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy. became. They introduced users to digital communication through e-mail, bulletin board messages, and real-time online chats.
This gave rise to some of the earliest social media networks, beginning in 1997 with the short-lived Six Degrees profile upload service.
This service was taken over by Friendster in 2001.

These rudimentary platforms have attracted millions of users and enabled email address registration and basic online networking.
Web logs or blogs were another early form of digital social communication that began to gain popularity with the launch of his LiveJournal publishing site in 1999. This coincides with the launch of a blogger publishing platform by technology company Pyra Labs, which was acquired by Google in 2003.
LinkedIn was founded in 2002 as a networking site for career-minded professionals. By 2020, he has grown to over 675 million users worldwide. It remains the social media site of choice not only for job seekers, but also for recruiters looking for qualified candidates.
and his other two major social media forays fell apart after initial success. MySpace started in 2003. By 2006, her website had become the most visited website in the world, allowing users to share new music directly on their profile page.

By 2008 it was overshadowed by Facebook. In 2011, Myspace was acquired by musician Justin Timberlake for $35 million, but has been on the backburner of social media ever since.
Google's attempt to elbow it in the social media landscape, Google+ began in his 2012. His hard existence came to an end in 2018 after the personal information of nearly half a million of his Google+ users was compromised in a data breach.

Contemporary Social Media Outlets
In today's social media landscape, there are a range of services that seek to capture the attention of his over 5 billion mobile his device users worldwide. Here's a rundown of the most popular social media networks of 2020.
Facebook

7 billion users, including 69% of US adults, according to Pew Research.
• HubSpot: Facebook Marketing

Reddit

Founded in 2005 by Massachusetts natives Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian as a news-sharing platform in the 1920s, Reddit's 300 million users have turned Reddit into a news gathering and social commenting service. changed to a combination of Its popularity is based on being able to "upgrade" and "upvote" user posts.
• Social Media Examiner: How to Market on Reddit: A Guide for Business

Twitter
Founded as a microblogging site in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and others. to Pew Research.
Hootsuite: Twitter Marketing: The Complete Business Guide

Instagram
Instagram was founded as a photo-sharing website in 2010 by his Kevin Systrom, a Stanford University graduate, and in 2012 he was acquired by Facebook. Instagram has over 1 billion users worldwide.
• HubSpot: Instagram Marketing: The Ultimate Guide

Pinterest
Pinterest was founded in 2010 by iPhone app developer Ben Silbermann as a visual 'pinboard' and went public in 2019 with 300 million monthly active users. Over 35 million people.
• Sprout Social: Your Pinterest Marketing Guide in 5 Steps

Snapchat
Founded in 2011 by three Stanford University students (Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, and Bobby Murphy), this video-sharing service lets you share a "story" or series. pioneered the concept. Short videos and "filters" are often location-based and run for beneficial digital effect. It will almost certainly be shaped by technological advances. 

Premium Social Media Services
What is the future of social media? According to Entrepreneur's recent article, 11 Ways Social Media Will Evolve in the Future, consumers are drawn to services that allow them to: Common public social media feeds
• More focus on protecting privacy
• More leverage on mobile device usability
• More focus on community building
This is a move to paid subscription services for social media may become. The challenge for marketers is to keep up with the changing demands of social media users while maintaining an authentic brand voice.