Courtesy of Google Images.
Social media has grown drastically over the past two decades with thousands of outlets to cater to different types of people.
The first social media site was called six degrees’ and lasted from 1999-2001. After its demise, the era of blogging and instant messaging was developed. By 2000, the internet was well known and accessible to 100 million people. MySpace came into play shortly after as one of the fastest growing social media sites with over 75 million users between 2004-2008.
Instagram is now one of the most popular social media sites that can bring instant fame to individuals who grasp the concept. It communicates through pictures while other outlets like Twitter communicate through 140 letters of information.
With over 400 million mobile users in the country, people are gaining access to the power of marketing into their own hands. Working from home now has a whole new attraction with social media on the rise.
There are individuals who make money from social media marketing as brand ambassadors. Businesses pay for ads and scout individuals with a high following to pay them money per post or even to offer a discounted rate for their items.
Actors, musicians, and comedians are gaining exposure for their craft by posting on social media daily. Billboard climbing rapper Cardi B and social media comedian DC Young Fly attest to Instagram as the platform that made them millionaires.
Several news outlets have used social media as a platform to reach more people quicker for breaking news segments. Twitter was started in 2008 and by 2014 over 400 million tweets were sent per day, which equals 6,000 posts per second. Twitter has even become a popular place to deliver news from the president of the United States of America, Donald Trump. Trump uses Twitter daily to state his opinion on issues happening in real time.
Matt Baner, a digital marketing entrepreneur, explains how social media has evolved the mindset of people over the last 12 years.
According to Baner, there are five psychological truths of social media that affect marketing
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Knowing your audience
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Emotions matter
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Your profile photo is important
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Social media creates a sense of belonging
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We’re wired to share
Facebook started in 2004 at Harvard University by Mark Zuckerberg and reached one billion users by August 2015. In 2011, Instagram started and was bought by Facebook in 2012 for one billion dollars. By 2016, over 80 million photos were shared daily on Instagram.
Other social media sites that have become quite popular are Google +, which gained over 10 million users in two weeks after it launched in 2011, by 2016 it had 300 million active monthly users. Also in 2011, Picaboo changed its name to Snapchat and by 2016 there were approximately 9,000 snaps taken every second.
Vine, Pinterest and other sites have also kept the attention of users online. This is just the beginning of the evolution of social media and the way it changes the era of marketing.