![]() Key areas DevOps, containers, the Internet of Things. Business 2 Community is an independent online community focused on sharing the latest news surrounding Social Media, Marketing, Branding, Public Relations & much more. Every day we feature the thought leadership of our open. ![]() The History of Social Media. Long before it became the commercialized mass information and entertainment juggernaut it is today, long before it was accessible to the general public, and certainly many years before Al Gore claimed he “took the initiative in creating” it, the Internet – and its predecessors – were a focal point for social interactivity. Granted, computer networking was initially envisioned in the heyday of The Beatles as a military- centric command and control scheme. But as it expanded beyond just a privileged few hubs and nodes, so too did the idea that connected computers might also make a great forum for discussing mutual topics of interest, and perhaps even meeting or renewing acquaintances with other humans. ![]() In the 1. 97. 0s, that process began in earnest. Related: Mullets reigned supreme in the late . Machine languages were bewildering, and their potential seemingly limited. What’s more, this whole sitting- in- front- of- a- keyboard thing was so. Put all this together and you have a medium where only the most ardent enthusiasts and techno- babbling hobbyists dared tread. ![]() It was, in effect, a breeding ground for pocket- protector- wearing societal rejects, or nerds. Boring, reclusive nerds at that. Yet it also was during this time, and with a parade of purportedly antisocial geeks at the helm, that the very gregarious notion of social networking would take its first steps towards becoming the omnipresent cultural phenomenon we know and love in 2. BBS, AOL and Compu. Serve: The Infant Years“Put all this together and you have a medium where only the most ardent enthusiasts and techno- babbling hobbyists dared tread.”It started with the BBS. Short for Bulletin Board System, these online meeting places were effectively independently- produced hunks of code that allowed users to communicate with a central system where they could download files or games (many times including pirated software) and post messages to other users. Accessed over telephone lines via a modem, BBSes were often run by hobbyists who carefully nurtured the social aspects and interest- specific nature of their projects – which, more often than not in those early days of computers, was technology- related. Moreover, long distance calling rates usually applied for out- of- towners, so many Bulletin Boards were locals- only affairs that in turn spurred local in- person gatherings. And voila, just like that, suddenly the antisocial had become social. The BBS was no joke. Though the technology of the time restricted the flexibility of these systems, and the end- user’s experience, to text- only exchanges of data that crawled along at glacial speed, BBSes continued to gain popularity throughout the . Indeed, some services – such as Tom Jennings’ Fido. Net – linked numerous BBSes together into worldwide computer networks that managed to survive the Internet revolution. But there were also other avenues for social interaction long before the Internet exploded onto the mainstream consciousness. One such option was Compu. Serve, a service that began life in the 1. Compu. Serve allowed members to share files and access news and events. But it also offered something few had ever experienced – true interaction. ![]() The online landscape is saturated with more than 200 tools and platforms claiming to be able to help you track and assess mentions of your business or brand in social media channels. While there remains a lot of churn in the. Most textbooks date the establishment of the 'Publicity Bureau' in 1900 as the start of the modern public relations (PR) profession. Of course, there were many early forms of public influence and communications management in. Social Media Examiner helps businesses master social media marketing to find leads, increase sales and improve branding using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and more. InformationWeek shares news and analysis on the technologies that fuel social business. Plus, peer lessons learned on social strategy and projects. Not only could you send a message to your friend via a newfangled technology dubbed “e- mail” (granted, the concept of e- mail wasn’t exactly newfangled at the time, though widespread public access to it was). You could also join any of Compu. Serve’s thousands of discussion forums to yap with thousands of other members on virtually any important subject of the day. Those forums proved tremendously popular and paved the way for the modern iterations we know today. But if there is a true precursor to today’s social networking sites, it was likely spawned under the AOL (America Online) umbrella. In many ways, and for many people, AOL was the Internet before the Internet, and its member- created communities (complete with searchable “Member Profiles,” in which users would list pertinent details about themselves), were arguably the service’s most fascinating, forward- thinking feature. Yet there was no stopping the real Internet, and by the mid- 1. Yahoo had just set up shop, Amazon had just begun selling books, and the race to get a PC in every household was on. And, by 1. 99. 5, the site that may have been the first to fulfill the modern definition of social networking was born. The Internet Boom: Social Networking’s Adolescence. Though differing from many current social networking sites in that it asks not “Who can I connect with?” but rather, “Who can I connect with that was once a schoolmate of mine?” Classmates. Early users could not create profiles, but they could locate long- lost grade school chums, menacing school bullies and maybe even that prom date they just couldn’t forget. It was a hit almost immediately, and even today the service boasts some 5. One of the first iterations of Six. Degrees. com. That same level of success can’t be said for Six. Degrees. com. Sporting a name based on the theory somehow associated with actor Kevin Bacon that no person is separated by more than six degrees from another, the site sprung up in 1. Its founders worked the six degrees angle hard by encouraging members to bring more people into the fold. Unfortunately, this “encouragement” ultimately became a bit too pushy for many, and the site slowly devolved into a loose association of computer users and numerous complaints of spam- filled membership drives. Six. Degrees. com folded completely just after the turn of the millennium. Other sites of the era opted solely for niche, demographic- driven markets. One was Asian. Avenue. A product of Community Connect Inc., which itself was founded just one year prior in the New York apartment of former investment banker and the future Community Connect CEO, Asian. Avenue. com was followed by Black. Planet. com in 1. Hispanic- oriented Mi. Gente. com in 2. 00. All three still exist today, with Black. Planet. com in particular still enjoying tremendous success with more than eight million visitors per month. Friendster, Linked. In, My. Space and Facebook: The Biz Grows Up. In 2. 00. 2, social networking hit really its stride with the launch of Friendster. Friendster used a degree of separation concept similar to that of the now- defunct Six. Degrees. com, refined it into a routine dubbed the “Circle of Friends,” and promoted the idea that a rich online community can exist only between people who truly have common bonds. And it ensured there were plenty of ways to discover those bonds. An interface that shared many of the same traits one would find at an online dating site certainly didn’t seem to hurt. Friendster CEO Jonathan Abrams even once referred to his creation as a dating site that isn’t about dating. Within a year after its launch, Friendster boasted more than three million registered users and a ton of investment interest. Unfortunately, the service has since seen more than its fair share of technical difficulties, questionable management decisions, and a resulting drop in its North American fortunes. Although briefly enjoying success in Indonesia and in the Philippines, Friendster has since abandoned social networking and now exists solely as an online gaming site. Introduced just a year later in 2. Linked. In took a decidedly more serious, sober approach to the social networking phenomenon. Rather than being a mere playground for former classmates, teenagers, and cyberspace Don Juans, Linked. In was, and still is, a networking resource for business people who want to connect with other professionals. In fact, Linked. In contacts are referred to as “connections.” Today, Linked. In boasts more than 2. My. Space also launched in 2. Though it no longer resides upon the social networking throne in many English- speaking countries – that honor now belongs to Facebook just about everywhere – My. Space was once the perennial favorite. It did so by tempting the key young adult demographic with music, music videos, and a funky, feature- filled environment. It looked and felt hipper than major competitor Friendster right from the start, and it conducted a campaign of sorts in the early days to show alienated Friendster users just what they were missing. Over the years however, the number of casual Myspace users declined, and today the site exists now as a social networking site targeted to bands and musicians. As expected, the ubiquitous Facebook now leads the global social networking pack. Founded, like many social networking sites, by university students who initially peddled their product to other university students, Facebook launched in 2. Harvard- only exercise and remained a campus- oriented site for two full years before finally opening to the general public in 2. Yet, even by that time, Facebook was considered big business. So much so that, by 2. Silicon Valley bigwigs such as Paypal co- founder and billionaire Peter Thiel invested tens of millions of dollars just to see it flourish. The secret of Facebook’s success — the site currently boasts more than 1. Some point to its ease of use, others to its multitude of easily- accessed features, and still others, to its memorable name. A highly targeted advertising model certainly doesn’t hurt, either, nor did financial injections such as the $6. Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka- shing in 2. Regardless, there’s universal agreement on one thing: Facebook promotes both honesty and openness. It seems people really enjoy being themselves, and throwing that openness out there for all to see. Pulling Ahead: How Facebook and Twitter won the Web. Facebook is king for a reason. It wasn’t just through luck that founder Mark Zuckerberg’s darling came to reign supreme over the social media kingdom. It was, in fact, a series of smart moves and innovative features that set the platform apart from the rest of the social media pack. First and foremost, the 2. Facebook Platform was key to site’s success.
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