Dec 10
12
Origins of Social Media
Social networking sites like Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Digg, Reddit and others like them are practically part of our daily lives. Back when the internet was just starting to gain popularity, there have been signs of social media starting to develop but couldn’t really gain steam because of the lack of a proper delivery system. Back then, nothing was centralized and if people wanted to form communities, they had to do it manually.
Communities like tripod and geocities attempted to connect people through home pages and chatrooms. To those that knew how to work their way around computers and HTML, this was a boon because they could keep everyone updated every time the decided to update their home pages. This was possibly the birth of social media.
This didn’t last very long because back then, marketing on the internet was still unheard of. Investors didn’t want to spend money on ad campaigns that were unproven. At the same time, people were also wary about handing money over to a total stranger over the internet.
What changed the whole scene was the emergence of social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster and a couple of other sites that promised to connect you to long lost contacts. It was no longer required for people to build their own pages for them to have their own online presence. With a few clicks and a few forms filled out, one can already have an online presence thanks to these sites.
Indie bands using MySpace as a promotional vehicle was probably the first use of social media as a marketing means. For the first time in history, band that didn’t have the resources to publish themselves traditionally could showcase their work to the whole world. This type of social media use made it possible for them to connect with their fans and connect with people that would lead to them getting discovered by major labels.
This medium of interaction made it very easy for the bands (or marketers) to immediately get feedback on their performance. This is one aspect of social media that cannot be duplicated by traditional media. Immediate feedback led to immediate improvements no matter how minor which in turn led to better products or performances.
Ever since the first bands were discovered online, this started a social media explosion. There are endless possibilities to showcase one’s talent because of all the specialized social networking sites popping up overnight. This has even been coined as the gold rush of our era.
This rush has continued to this very day because almost every platform out there is free to use. As long as you know how to put your stuff out there for people to see, you can pretty much publish anything you want. With all of these resources, all you need to do is to utilize them and you’re set.
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