Social media or social networking, as a defined marketing term, has only come to prominence in the past year or so. But social media has been around for years, long before the internet was even around. Today I’m going to explain the evolution of social media, and why social media isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The BBS

If you’re under 25 years old, you might not have heard of the BBS (Bulletin Board System). I had the distinct pleasure of using BBSs back in the day, with my acoustic coupler 300baud modem. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s a box with two suction cups to wedge a telephone handset into and dial out to other modems. Yes, it was as horrible as it sounds. If you cough, you get disconnected. If you sneeze, you get disconnected. If you breathe too loud, you get disconnected.

Enough nostalgia.

A BBS was, in a crude way, much like a forum or blog is today. Someone would set up their computer to be a BBS with a particular theme, and the number would be published (in local computer magazines, word of mouth, etc). People with a particular interest would dial out to the BBS and could read posts, make comments, contact other users, upload and download files, and more. It was a way of sharing information in a centralized way on a topic of interest to others in the group, much the same way social media works now. The only difference is that computers were not nearly as common as they are today, not nearly as easy to setup, and not nearly as user friendly. The BBS was mostly used by a few elite tech savvy people, and thus the interest groups were generally computer related. Or very nerdy. Either way, it wasn’t very marketable, so it was never picked up as a mainstream advertising platform.

The World Wide Web

Once the ISP scene took over the BBS scene, web pages worked in the same way. Early on in the Internet days, the web was a very different place, full of colourful text and blinking words gone wild. At the time, almost every ISP offered a few MBs of web space, usually accessed as www.yourisp.com/~yourusername . Since everyone had access to the space, anyone technically inclined enough could set up their own webpage. The problem was it was too difficult for most people, and once the web started taking shape with images and interactivity, websites lay stagnant as people were just too lazy to update.

Newsgroups

Because building webpages was too complicated for most, newsgroups were popular early on in the Internet age. Anyone could sign in to any news group and post or read news items, make comments, and share information. It was an evolution of the BBS, and it was arguably used more than building websites because it was easy to use and offered a two way communication. Some companies picked up on this and created newsgroups specifically for information sharing with clients and to offer help or advice. In essence, this was the very beginning of social media as we know it today. It was, however, limited to text only, and as the internet became more graphical, newsgroups fell out of grace.

Forums

The next incarnation of social media was the graphical version of the newsgroup. Forums acted in much the same way as newsgroups did, allowing users to post articles and make comments, but did so with style and flair. Again, companies took notice and began offering support and user forums for their users. More popular forums were advertising hotspots as companies could easily target thousands of users with a specific interest. However, the forum was still fairly anonymous. Sure, you could post an article on a forum, but it was mixed in with hundreds of other posts, and didn’t offer a big enough soapbox for some.

Blogs

The blog was the next evolutionary step in social media, and is really just one step removed from the beast we have today. Blogs offered two things that made it instantly popular across all markets:

1- It allowed for the easy creation of fresh content (that search engines love) and

2- It pandered to people’s ego, allowing anyone and everyone to have a voice.

Let’s face it. Social media wouldn’t be where it is today if it weren’t for people’s egos. That’s really what drives social media; People like to show off, and want to be propped up.

However, the key difference, and the noteworthy identifier that transformed what we have from just the internet into “social media” is the comment. The two-way communication allowed everyone to have a voice. The bloggers have their voice, but the public can chime in too, and vice versa. That’s ultimately what led to the social media we have today. Even Facebook started out as a “look how awesome I am” platform, but quickly realized that two way communication was the next logical step.

Social Media

Social media today is really nothing more than a marketing term to describe the current state of the internet. It is the instant sharing, consumption, and regurgitation of tiny fractions of information. More importantly, it is marketable, and as consumers move away from the one way communication of a webpage, it is the most relevant way for companies to reach a large audience. It is on the cusp of being completely corrupted by unscrupulous marketing vultures who just haven’t found a way to buy their way in… yet.

I can’t say for sure what social media will evolve into, but based on the evolution we have seen so far, I do have several ideas. But I think I’ll save that for another post.

Andy Morris
Hotcakes New Media

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