Believe it or not, SNS first came on the scene in 1969 through a company called CompuServe. It was the first major commercial internet service provider for the public in the United States. This service used a technology known as dial-up which dominated the field through the 1980s and even remained a player into the mid-90s. I am sure there are some of you out there who can still recall that distinct sound from when you were trying to connect to your dial up server. In 1971, the first email was delivered and throughout the 70s, bulletin board systems were created to inform people of meetings, announcements and sharing various posts and information. This was the beginning of the virtual communities. The Prodigy online service was introduced in 1984 and soon became one of the largest online service providers in 1990. Prodigy later pioneered the sales of dial-up connections to the World Wide Web and hosting services for Web publishers. Through several acquisitions, this service is now part of AT&T. Then in 1984, American Online (AOL) made its debuted and in ’85, A British engineer by the name of Tim Berners-Lee began work at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Switzerland), on what was to become the World Wide Web (WWW). 1992 a community online system for college students and young adults was opened by Tripod, and in 1993 CERN donated the WWW technology to the world. Also, students from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, debuted Mosaic (the first graphical browser) and the web pages we know now were born. By this time, more than 200 Web servers were online.
In the mid-90s things really started to speed up. By 1994 more than 1500 Web servers were online. Yahoo opened as a major internet search engine and index in 1994. GeoCities which was created by the Beverly Hills Internet and allowed users to create their own urban modeled websites, got up to one million members by 1997. There were 38 million user Web pages on GeoCities before is shut down for U.S. users in 2009. Today, Yahoo owns GeoCities and offers it only as a web hosting service for Japan. The internet was now being referred to as the “Information Superhighway.” Also in 1997 blogging begins. SixDegrees.com allows users to create profiles and friends list. You can now do virtual chatting through AOL and Blackboard is introduced as an online course management system for educators and learners. Google came into the game in 1998 and in 1999 the first online social network to achieve prominence was Friends Reunited. At this point seventy million computers were connected but in the world of business and commerce in 2000, the dot.com bubble had burst and the internet and online future was unsure. From 2001 through 2004 social networking took off. Wikipedia came online; Apple began selling iPods and introduced iTunes; a social networking site called Friendster opened in the U.S. and grew to three million users in just three months. AOL had over 34 million members; MySpace launched to compete with Friendster; LinkedIn started the business SNS concept for professionals; and now there were over three billion Web pages. Facebook hit the market and has not stopped. Digg was founded as a social news website for people to share stories across the internet.
Let’s fast forward to 2014. Social media is the new business market. To be and maintain a competitive edge, you must be ready to move into that social media world. However, this is not without risk. Many companies have a hesitation about moving into this unknown world. It is very hard to monitor the real-time comments that may put your business in a negative light. Companies need to start thinking of ways to transition their marketing strategies that will include social media. It is important that they begin to hire those with blogging and mobile media experience. Businesses and organizations must understand the necessity and complexity of building a social media presences. To build it is one thing, but you cannot let it go stagnant, or blunder the approach. If that happens, companies can face damaging reputations. If your site is stagnant, it discourages consumer engagement and gives the impression that you are unwilling to service your customer.
Social networking can make or break a company if it is not properly handled. I read an article about companies that had used national tragedies and social media to promote their product. While one may think that it is an opportunity, it is looked upon as completely distasteful. For example, shortly after the Newtown shootings occurred, Kmart sent a tweet to pay their respects and then added a promotional hashtag. Also, a tweet accidently went out under the Chrysler Auto company account that included gross profanity due to the user sending it under the wrong account. With Twitter having over 500 million registered users, even if you don’t follow Chrysler Auto, the retweets of people for whom you may follow will spin a situation like this out of control. As I’ve said before, good news travels fast, but bad news and stupid mistakes travel at warp speed.
I think in today’s world of internet dominance, enhancing
your brand and keeping it on the forefront involves a social marketing
strategy. Companies must ensure they have a social marketing plan and keep it
authentic and align it with the terms of the company’s style and persona. Also
have a backup public relations crisis plan to advert any negative responses or complications
that may occur.
References
Babcock, P. (2010, August 13). Suffering From Social Media Neglect?
Retrieved April 11, 2014, from
http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/technology/articles/pages/socialmedianeglect.aspx
The Brief History of Social Media. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11,
2014, from http://www2.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html
Calderon, A. (2013, May 22). 19 Companies That Made Huge Social Media
Fails. Retrieved April 11, 2014, from
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/19-companies-that-made-huge-social-media-fails
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