Section 3.08 – Social Media & tools

Social Media & Tools

Social Media History

The rise of social media began in 1969 with the emergence of ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). This new digital network allowed them to connect four university computers to share information such as their software and access the hardware. In 1979, social media became more robust when NSF launched a vibrant, fast, and more digital network named NSFNET. From there onwards, social media platforms kept changing, and competitiveness drove a new demand in this new arena of space.

In 1977, the early period of new social media networks we saw ‘Six Degrees’ followed by ‘Friendster’ in 2001. We then saw millions of users registering email accounts and online chatting.

In 2002, LinkedIn was founded and then came ‘Myspace’ in 2003, which became the most visited website ever in 2006 allowing users to share music directly on their profiles. Facebook began in 2004, and in 2008, Facebook overtook ‘Myspace’ to become the fastest-growing website. Google also pushed its way into the arena by launching Google+ in 2012. The fight for attention kept on increasing with excitement and its benefits.

MySpace was the first social media platform to surpass a million active monthly users; this accomplishment occurred in or around 2004. Arguably, this marks the start of social media as we currently know it.

Social media development 

Since 2004, we have plotted monthly active users by platform in the interactive chart. You can use the slider to concentrate on specific years, and you can select “+ Add” to switch between series and follow the development of different social media sites.

This graph demonstrates that while some powerful social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, and Reddit, have been operational for ten years or longer, other significant platforms are far more recent.

For instance, TikTok, which debuted in September 2016, had 500 million subscribers by the middle of 2018. To put this into perspective, over this time TikTok averaged roughly 20 million new users every month.

The data also demonstrates quick shifts going the other way. Platforms that were once the norm has vanished. Hi5, MySpace, and Friendster were Facebook’s main rivals in 2008, but by 2012, they had almost no market share. MySpace’s situation is noteworthy in light of the fact that in 2006 it briefly overtook Google as the most popular website in the US.

The majority of social media sites that have endured over the past ten years have dramatically changed what they have to offer consumers. For instance, users couldn’t initially submit movies or photographs to Twitter. This has been possible since 2011, and as of this writing, more than 50% of the information read on Twitter includes images and videos.

SM management tools 

Social media management tools are software designed to allow users to be effective by managing several social media profiles across several networks in one dashboard.

Today there are many social media management tools for specific tasks. Research the tools best suit your needs as generally commented on the following,  

• Sprout Social is famous overall.
• Hootsuite works best for analytics.
• Zoho is the best all-in-one tool.
• MeetEdgar is best for automation.
• Loomly is the best for significant team collaboration.
• Sensitive is the best integration.
• Buffer, which offers the best value.
• SocialPilot is the best for small teams.

The future of  social media

The only restriction on the future is one’s imagination. Social media has a short history, but it has already left its mark. Rapid shifts in demand, technological development, skyrocketing market financial needs, and cultural change will define and reshape the entire state of the social media environment.

The First Amendment protects individuals from government censorship. However, social media platforms are private companies and can censor what people post on their websites as they see fit. Unfortunately, the future is already now with social media being censored.

It is advertised that it’s not a violation of one’s constitutional rights to not have free speech on social media due to the guidelines you agreed to in those terms and conditions to use private social media platforms.

However, their rules change without clear and far too often evolving guidelines. Internet censorship puts restrictions on what information can be placed on their platform at increasing surprises presented daily. Organisations claim the privilege of censorship to conform to their societal norms, their political views, their religious views, restricting information, bias and one-sided views to influence media news.

Social media future

Social media is a powerful tool of communication, it started by allowing everyone from all sides of the platform to express themselves as reasonably accessible. Now, we have censorship, and the information is being manipulated, the question is what else is to come?  Started well, the freedom of speech and information accessible to all, now the giants of social media after enjoying almost several decades of data power, now are experiencing declination.  A new movement with people deserting platforms as never before.

Many feel and exclaim being fed up with tyrannical totalitarian leadership, many are moving to other promised to remain uncensored platforms. The rise of the uncensored vs the censored platform is a new phenomenon. Only time will tell how long this change will continue before achieving equilibrium.

Furthermore, what else awaits the battle for controlling data of every human being by tech companies?

Would we reach a time when every one of the eight billion people would join at least one social media? Would it be like China where each one would want to control their own country’s social media information? 

Summary 

• History of Social Media.
• There are many social media software and tools.
• Research a few of the SMM tools to discover which you prefer to use for your career or your own future business.   
• The now of Social Media is censorship. 

3.08 Ways to Success While you Sleep (2)

Activity 3.08

Research 4 of the tools mentioned above , and choose two that will be best for your social media

Please leave your answer in bullet points

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