The Evolution of Social Media Marketing

Social media is undoubtedly one of the most powerful tools that a business can possess today. According to a study by Statista, 37.9% of consumers make a purchase after seeing a social media ad for a certain product or service. With that, it makes sense why 93% of marketers and businesses have a social media account in 2022. When it comes to business, you need to pull out all the stops, utilize all the features, and fully immerse yourself in the joys of social media so that you can reach your audience and find meaningful ways to catch their attention.

Social media marketing has existed since the early 2000s, and digital marketing for even longer. The birth of social marketing paved the way for brand new opportunities for marketers to showcase their products in dynamic and creative ways. Throughout the years, various platforms have risen to popularity and gained massive hype from their user base. In this blog, we’ll be going through the evolution of social media marketing; how it came to be, which platforms planted the seed for its success, and how it has changed today. Read on to learn more.

Social Media and Digital Marketing in the 2000s

Social media had its humble beginnings. We all know that Facebook was among the first to truly brand social media as a mainstream channel for users to communicate and perform different activities, including marketing for their products and services. However, before Facebook was created, some platforms and channels paved the way for its popularity. Here are some of the platforms that users enjoyed in the early 2000s.

Before the Status Updates: Blogging

Blogging was one of the first ways for users to share their experiences online. One of the first popular blogging platforms was actually introduced in 1999. It was a site called LiveJournal, which allowed users to share their thoughts, opinions, and feelings on their accounts. LiveJournal could be considered the early 2000s equivalent to tweet updates or the Facebook statuses that we post today. Users loved this platform as they had a safe space and essentially an online diary to talk about anything and everything under the sun.

Once LiveJournal became popular, marketers soon realized that blogging could be a good marketing opportunity for businesses. With that, Channel 9 was launched. Channel 9 was created by Microsoft in 2004 and is known as one of the first blogging platforms that were specifically created for businesses and marketing purposes, not personal use. From there, other businesses and companies began to follow, creating platforms to host their blogs as they began releasing blog posts to appeal to their audience.

MySpace and Friendster Become Classic Social Media Favorites

If you were a teenager or young adult in the early 2000s, then you’re most likely familiar with platforms like MySpace and Friendster. Friendster and MySpace were quite similar when it came to concept and features. They both offered the charm of personalization and design through their various options of profile customization.

Friendster was the first to introduce more communication opportunities, such as profile comments and being able to add “friends of friends,” creating a wider network for users online. MySpace soon emerged a year after Friendster was created and quickly rose to fame as a similar platform. MySpace allowed users to attach music and videos to their posts, being one of the first platforms to integrate media.

Although both of these platforms weren’t directly used for marketing and business purposes, they became popular enough for businesses and companies to realize the potential of social media as a tool for their marketing tactics. Friendster and MySpace were two of the most popular social media platforms in their time, especially since Facebook wasn’t open to the public yet when these two platforms were at their peak.

The Beginning of Apple Podcasts

You’ve probably listened to a podcast or two in your life. These days, it’s become a great way to consume content, especially when you’re on the go. People listen to podcasts when they’re jogging, doing their chores, or even just laying in their bed. It’s an easy way to enjoy content and has also become an effective tool for businesses to use in their marketing strategies. Podcasts were initially introduced as a marketing tactic by Apple. As everyone may know, Apple has a long line of audio devices called iPods. As more people started buying iPods, Apple realized that they could turn their new products’ success into another strategy to captivate their audience.

In 2005, Apple launched a subscription-based service for podcasts. They were hosted on the iTunes store and, as expected, iPod users quickly became curious about the features that this new service had to offer. Following Apple’s success, other companies began to follow their example and quickly decided to try their hand at podcast marketing. Fidelity Investments was one of the first major companies to create podcasts for marketing purposes, launching their own content in 2005. This gave users access to a channel where they could easily learn more about the brand and its services through social audio.

The Platforms We Know and Love: the Past and the Present

Today, some platforms have become prominent in the social media industry. These platforms continue to grow and evolve as time passes. Despite a number of new platforms and social media sites being launched every year, these platforms and applications aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. You’ve probably had some of these applications installed on your phone at least once. You may even use these platforms every day.

These social media platforms are some of the most versatile and flexible platforms to date, covering several areas of business, entertainment, and communication. With that, it’s no wonder why they’ve become so popular. Here are some of the top social media platforms today, as well as where they came from and how much they’ve grown throughout the years.

Making Friends Through Facebook

Facebook was first launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerburg. At first, it wasn’t even meant to be open to the public. Zuckerburg created the platform for students at Harvard University to connect with each other and, eventually, with students from other universities as well. As a platform for students, users needed to register with a .edu email address to gain access to the platform. However, when the gates were finally opened to the public, Facebook quickly became a force to be reckoned with in social media marketing. Throughout the years, Facebook has evolved from being a platform to communicate with friends and loved ones to a versatile platform that offers various forms of entertainment and hosts various businesses.

Facebook has become the most popular among users that are aged between 35 and 44. According to Hootsuite, older millennials seem to love Facebook because it offers a similar vibe and features to the platforms that they used back in their teenage years, such as Friendster and MySpace.

In terms of marketing and business, Facebook has opened its doors to various businesses and companies. Facebook reports that there were over 200 million small businesses selling on the platform in 2021. Businesses often create pages for their brands where they can engage with their audience and create updates and posts about their products. This number doesn’t even include the independent business transactions being made in their sections like “Facebook Marketplace.” Of course, marketers won’t fall short with advertising on Facebook. In fact, 86% of marketers use FB to advertise their products and services.

Speaking Loud and Proud With Twitter

Twitter started out solely as a microblogging platform. It was first launched in 2007, offering a new space for users to share their thoughts and updates through the site’s dynamic features. Although tweets could be compared to Facebook’s status updates, Twitter’s tweets had a charm that was uniquely its own at the time.

As a microblogging platform, users were only limited to 140 characters per tweet. This was a bit frustrating but also quite fun since users found creative ways to express their thoughts within the character limit. Twitter also introduced the concept of retweeting and quote retweeting, which allows users to share another person’s tweet or add their own thoughts while embedding the original tweet. Hashtags were also created through Twitter, which we all know has taken the social media world by storm today.

In terms of user base, Twitter is more popular among users between the age of 25 to 35. This may come as a surprise, considering that K-Pop fans and icons from the entertainment industry seem to generate the most traction for the platform. In reality, 38.5% of Twitter users are millennials between 25 to 34. Twitter seems to have a large number of male users as well, with a whopping 70.4% male user base.

Although Twitter seems like it would be a less versatile platform compared to other sites like Facebook and Instagram, it actually offers a one-stop hub of different features. Social media marketers benefit greatly from advertising on Twitter. People spend 26% more time viewing ads on Twitter than on other social media sites, according to an official report by the platform. However, the real charm of Twitter lies in user engagement. Aside from being able to integrate tweet ads into a user’s timeline, businesses can also communicate with their audience freely and create relatable content.

Discovering New Ideas on Pinterest

Pinterest is a great way to boost your social media presence through media and visual content. Pinterest has become one of the go-to platforms for users who are looking for new ideas, inspiration, or simply some aesthetically pleasing photos that they want to save for future use. One of the best things about Pinterest is its organized system for saving ‘Pins.’ This makes it easier for users to discover a specific theme or niche that they are looking for without digging through similar content. Businesses can use this to their advantage by targeting users through personalized content that aligns with their brand’s ideals and products.

Social media marketing through Pinterest is pretty straightforward. The best way to generate engagement and traffic to your website is by creating helpful and informative Pinterest boards. For example, create an infographic that contains useful statistics about a certain topic. Users can easily learn more about the topic by clicking on the image, which is linked to your main website. At the same time, you will be receiving more traffic and leads to your main platform. Users also turn to Pinterest when it comes to the purchases they make. According to Social Media Power Influencer Neil Schaffer, 93% of users plan their purchases on Pinterest, while 87% of users have already purchased something they found on the platform.

As for the user base, the majority of the users on Pinterest are between the ages of 50 and 64. 38% of Pinterest users are millennials, meaning that brands who cater to that specific age group may find it beneficial to advertise on the platform.

Capturing Moments With Instagram

Instagram is the home of social media influencers. It first started out as a simple platform where users could share their pictures. What people loved the most about Instagram was its wide array of built-in filters that users could utilize to enhance their photos. This became a hot trend in social media in 2010. If you were an Instagram user in 2010, then you’re probably guilty of using their B&W photo to create a scenic, edgy photo to decorate your feed. As the years passed, Instagram eventually evolved into a platform where users could freely share their experiences through photos. At the same time, it also became a hot spot for businesses and social media influencers to begin advertising various products and services. 44% of Instagram users use the platform to shop weekly.

Instagram’s features have definitely expanded over the years. One of the most popular additions is the story feature. These stories were designed to showcase little snippets of a person’s day, displayed through short clips that were less than a minute long. Most businesses utilize this feature by creating short and informative ads about their products. Another popular way is by having social media influencers promote their products and give a short review or at least a clip of them using it, often tagging the official brand profile and linking the product in the story.

Instagram’s user base is mainly composed of Millennials and Gen Z users. The Millenial user base actually has the higher number of users among the two, amounting to up to 31.5%. However, the difference isn’t too astounding. The Gen Z user base follows close, with 30.1% of users between the ages of 18 to 24.

Exploring Your Creativity With YouTube

Youtube is the second highest-ranking search engine on the internet, falling just below Google. We all know how versatile of a platform YouTube is, especially in terms of content. You can find everything under the sun there. Whether it’s a tutorial about how to cook rice, your favorite music video, or a crash course for your college major, it’s probably on YouTube. With that, it’s definitely one of the best places to advertise a business.

Like Instagram, businesses can collaborate with YouTube content creators who are willing to advertise their products. Before, businesses would have to rely on their own personnel to create videos about their products. Now, it’s much more convenient and effective to partner up with content creators as they have a command and influence over their existing audience. These social media influencers will usually have the product linked in their description, briefly talking about the product or service in the video as well. Other times, it could be a straightforward advertisement, where brands will ask content creators to review their products.

Of course, there’s also the straightforward manner in which YouTube presents its ads. Admit it: we’ve all gotten frustrated at the repetitive ads that pop up in the middle of watching our videos. Annoying or not, ads are one of the best ways to gain brand recognition and awareness for a business, which can eventually lead to more sales. In fact, 70% of users have bought a product after seeing it in a YouTube ad.

The largest user base on YouTube is mainly composed of users between the age of 18 and 25, aka Gen Z, with 81%. This is followed by Millennials, aged 26 to 35. The smallest user base on YouTube goes to people ages 56+.

Sharing Highlight Reels With TikTok

TikTok is the most recent addition to this list of social media monsters. Although it was first launched in September 2016, TikTok gained most of its popularity after surpassing 2 billion downloads in 2020. TikTok rose to fame just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing a new form of entertainment as we were all stuck in our homes. People use TikTok for various things, such as sharing dance covers to their favorite audios, posting daily vlogs of their lives, or simply just making short clips to share with their followers.

One of the most popular ways to build momentum on TikTok is by posting funny or relatable content. 60% of users use the application to discover more comedy entertainment, so businesses often utilize this opportunity to gain brand recognition on the app. One of the best examples of this is the language app, Duolingo, which has become a running meme on the internet for its persistent approach to getting users to take their language lessons. Duolingo took this internet meme to TikTok, creating completely unhinged and hilarious videos like this.

Of course, no platform would be complete without social media influencers. Similar to Instagram, content creators on TikTok often create short videos about the products and services they were asked to advertise. Some users tend to get creative with this, even creating short skits to show the full potential of the product. TikTok clips used to be limited to only a few seconds long but after a strong demand from their user base about extending the duration, 3-minute and 10-minute videos soon became available for users and content creators to enjoy.

Speaking of the user base, TikTok’s population is unsurprisingly composed mainly of Gen Z users. 60% of TikTok users are part of the Gen Z age group. In terms of gender, TikTok reports that its users are predominantly female, with 60% female users and 40% male users.

Recap: How Has Social Media Marketing Changed Over the Years?

One of the most notable changes in social media marketing is the presence of social media influencers. Before, companies and businesses relied solely on their personnel when it came to producing marketing content for their brand. These brands would often designate a representative from their team to create content, which would mostly be informative video ads or tutorials about their products.

The key difference in social media marketing today is the consumer preference for relatable content. According to BusinessWire, 70% of consumers prefer listening to content creators with relatable personalities. This is why social media influencers have risen to fame. Many of these influencers are either artists, public figures, or even just normal people who gained traction on the internet because people liked their content. Aside from relatable content, customers also enjoy direct engagement with the brand. 70% of consumers feel more connected to brands whose personnel or CEO are more active on their official sites. Frequently interacting with your audience builds trust and credibility, which are two of the most valuable assets to every business.

Conclusion

Social media has gone through substantial changes over the years. Whether it comes with the innovative features of each platform or the consumer behavior of its users, social media and social media marketing are much different compared to how they were in the early 2000s. Did you enjoy this blog? Feel free to visit our website for more articles about social media marketing.

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