It’s hard to believe that just ten years ago, Facebook was still in its infancy, gaining traction amongst high school and college students who were already using sites like MySpace, Friendster and LiveJournal to communicate with friends across the miles. Since the humble beginnings of social media, we have seen Facebook go from a simple platform for sharing status updates and “pokes” (remember those?) to the most popular and widespread social media network, which is now used by over 2 billion people worldwide.
Facebook is far from the only social media network that has gained prevalence in our world since it first launched in 2004. Let’s explore some of the other big names in social media and see what makes them tick, and how they can be used to better channel your marketing message to the right audience for your business.
Facebook may still be the largest and most popular social media network, but Twitter is surely a close second. The real-time microblogging network which introduced the world to “tweets” started back in 2006 when most text-message services had only a limited capacity, hence the now-iconic 140-character limit. Turns out people had a lot to say in these bite-sized posts, and Twitter fast became the go-to social media platform for funny one-liners, critiques of politics, art, and media, and innovative new marketing strategies designed to reach consumers with brevity and humor that got straight to the point. Today, Twitter is functioning more like Facebook, with capacity for links to videos, photo posting ability and capabilities of sharing all types of media with ease, but it all started with a single tweet.
They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. When it comes to Instagram, truer words were never spoken! At first glance Instagram looks like Facebook, but in reality users get a whole different experience sharing their life and times through pictures that skew toward the artistic. This photo-centric social network got its start focusing on the visual aspect of things, with users sharing real-time photos and short videos that chronicle their experiences in a fresh new way. Most popular of all are the now-famous Instagram filters that take an ordinary photo snapped on a smartphone and turn it into a work of art. Young people seem to prefer Instagram to Facebook, making it a great platform for marketing products and services geared toward the millennial set.
Other Social Platforms
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg: countless other social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Snapchat, Google Plus, Pinterest and YouTube continue to grow and shape our ever-changing world, changing how we communicate with each other every day. It’s an exciting time to be alive in the age of social media, where your best friend might live 2500 miles away and you never really lose touch with anyone you’ve ever met.
Contact Social Media Experts Today
We can use social media to further our understanding of one another and bridge the gaps between our cultural differences to make ourselves truly a global society. When you use social media to reach your targeted audience, your business is getting more exposure and attention than companies just 20 years ago were ever able to achieve. It’s time you started harnessing the power of social media marketing and get your brand name out there for everyone to see! Contact Echero today and speak with our social media marketing experts for help with your social campaign today!
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