Last updated on September 18, 2024
The universal social media era lasted less than fifteen years. It was 2003 when several employees of eUniverse launched MySpace. Success was mixed. Although the site quickly became the largest social media network, it never built a business-friendly advertising service. Facebook (2004) took the lead spot in 2008, and Twitter(2006) became a favorite medium for the chattering class. Google, a company built on search engine domination, joined the social media market in 2006 with the purchase of YouTube (2005). It quickly created a destination for videos that educated and entertained.
This successful infrastructure provided marketers an alternative to broadcasting. It created communities of highly involved consumers that were well defined and accessible through targeted marketing with built-in metrics. The benefit is hard to understate as businesses could now market to the consumers interested in their product, and consumers didn’t have to wade through advertising inappropriate to their interests. The resulting lower costs for marketing benefited both consumers and businesses.
Unfortunately, these broad social media communities are proving to be unstable. Political differences between users are now dominating their similar interests, and this polarization is causing some users to leave established social media platforms and some platforms to alienate their users. This segregation makes it harder for marketers to reach audiences. It is too early to tell how much this division is going to affect the established platforms. More importantly, new social media sites are going to provide opportunities that didn’t exist before.
WSI has worked hard to have good relationships with all of the major social media platforms. We are continually investigating new opportunities and will be ready when they are appropriate for our customers. If you would like to discuss your company’s social media strategy, please book a time to talk.
