Social Media: History, Current Use and Future

When used appropriately, social media is a powerful tool that can help a company to achieve remarkable success. Along with the rapid growth of technologies globally, social media will play an important role in future business and personal world.

Defining Social Media

Social media is a very often heard phrase in today’s world. We are familiar with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All of us can name examples of social media, but if asked for a definition of social media many people will struggle to define it. So, what is a social media exactly?

The Paige Baltzan “Business Driven Information Systems” textbook definition of a social media” refers to websites that rely on the user participation and user-contributed content, such as Facebook, YouTube etc.” (Baltzan, 2011)

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary social media is a “form of electronic communication through which the users can create online communities to share information, personal messages, and ideas” and other content including videos photos etc. The electronic form of communication could take a form of blogs, podcasts, wikis, forums, bookmarking, tagging, etc.

There are many different sites that can be classified as social media. The most popular and well known social media sites include; Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Twitter, and You Tube.

Social media was first introduced for personal use by people who wanted to freely interact and share, discuss, and exchange information about their lives over the internet. Later, social media became a tool in the business world to allow companies wider access to customers; it allowed the interaction with existing and potential customers, including better feedback and new ideas.

The Evolution of Social Media

The fundamental building blocks of today’s social media were formed in 2001 when the largest wiki, Wikipedia, was introduced, and Apple started to sell its first iPods. (“Apple” 2010) In 2002 the first social networking site, Friendster, was...