The History and Evolution of Social Media for Ad Agency New Business

Michael Gass history of social media

A look back at the history of social media can help us better move forward as it continues to evolve and mature.

There are social media solutions for almost every need. These are exciting times for the advertising industry.  I enjoy every day of exploring the potential of social media to advance ad agency new business and share what I’m learning with you.

Social media, in an incredibly short period of time, has become mainstream. Millions of people connect through social media channels daily.  To better understand where it is going, it is important to review its brief past.

Webdesigner Depot, has created an excellent summary of the  history of social media. Changes occur almost on a daily basis but this look back can help you put rising popularity of social media into context.  The following are the major topics covered in this resourceful article, that highlight’s social media’s history along with summaries of the various platforms that continue to evolve:

  • Precursors to Social Media: Usernets, BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems), IRC, ICQ, and Instant Messaging
  • Early Social Networks: Dating Sites, Forums, Six Degrees (the first modern social network) and Live Journal
  • Major Advances in Social Networking: Friendster, Hi5, LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook
  • Other Major Social Networks: Multiply (family friendly social network), Orkut (Google’s social network), Kontain (allowing users to follow each other through photos, videos, and music, rather than just simple status updates)
  • Niche Social Networks: Ning, Media Sharing, Photobucket. Flickr, YouTube, Revver
  • Social News and Bookmarking: Delicious, Digg, Reddit
  • Real Time Updates: Twitter, Posterous, Tumblr,
  • Lifestreaming and Lifecasting: Ustream.tv, Justin.tv, FriendFeed, WP Lifestream

Click the following link to read the article, pass it along to your clients: The History and Evolution of Social Media

Some additional resources:

photo credit: ABC Archives via photopin cc

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About Michael Gass

Michael is an international new business consultant to advertising, digital, media and PR agencies. Since 2007, he has led in the use of social media and content marketing strategies to make agency new business EASIER.