The Evolution of Social Media: A History of Social Media Marketing and How to Future-Proof Your Social Media Strategy

In the modern economy, it’s almost impossible for your business not to have an active social media presence. But if you don’t know the history of how social media marketing has evolved and why we use the platforms and strategies that we do today, you run the risk of not being able to fully leverage social media marketing strategies in your overall business marketing plan.

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is a strategy used by professional marketers to leverage social media platforms in order to effectively engage with their target audience and existing customers. This engagement allows businesses to build and enhance their branding, grow sales, and increase website traffic back to their organization’s home page or target landing pages.

A brief history of social media and social media marketing

Today, it’s hard to remember a time before social media dominated the online marketing landscape. While the internet has been around in some form or another since the 1940s, with early social interactions taking place on closed bulletin board systems (BBS) and discussion boards, social media akin to modern iterations of social platforms didn’t emerge until 1997, and marketers didn’t start targeting these platforms until these networks expanded in 2006.

The origins of social media

Computers weren’t commonplace in homes until the early 1980s, when technical advancements made home computing devices affordable. As users increasingly leveraged home computing devices to access the internet in subsequent years, email and chat programs emerged as popular methods for connecting and communicating. Seeing this shift, businesses started building online experiences to engage and entice online users to increase engagement and draw in business. 

But it wasn’t until 1997 when the first true social networking site emerged when SixDegrees.com went live. Internet historians agree that SixDegrees.com launched with many of the features users were relying upon through multiple platforms and would become standards in future social media platforms:

• User-managed profiles
• Curated friends’ lists
• Private instant messaging

Unlike the advertising-reliant Classmates.com that launched around the same time period, SixDegrees.com wasn’t able to convert its base of three million users—an impressive audience at that point in internet history—into enough revenue to sustain itself beyond the dot-com collapse in 2000^[1].

The evolution of social media

While SixDegrees.com didn’t survive the bubble bursting in 2000, other platforms emerged in the early 2000s to fill an increasing demand for platforms supporting connection and social interaction.

Early adopters

The success of social media platforms in the wake of SixDegrees.com’s failure spoke to the new platforms being able to adapt to user expectations and expand their base features. Three social platforms emerged in the early 2000s that caught the attention of online social media users.

• Friendster launched in 2002. The platform included the basic features users expected, and folded in the ability to play games and integrate music into the user experience. The platform resonated with users across Asia especially, but eventually lost enough market share to cease trading in 2018.
• MySpace opened its online platform to users in 2003 and offered users complete access to customizing their profiles. Users could customize layouts and add graphics and animations to their sites. This customizability made the platform especially popular not only with younger users but also with artists and musicians who were interested in showcasing their work.
• LinkedIn emerged in 2003 as a networking platform for professionals and business owners looking for a meaningful way to connect with other businesses and potential clients. It also became a very useful source for job-seekers to research potential employers and connect with hiring managers.    

Social media explodes

The social media landscape changed forever between 2004 to 2006, when Mark Zuckerberg and several other Harvard students launched TheFacebook, rebranded it Facebook, and expanded the site’s access from only college and university students to the public at large. In this move, the user base grew to 50 million users^[2]. Today, Facebook has been folded into Meta—the parent-company that also owns WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram—and has evolved significantly. 

With the success of Facebook, the social media landscape has been flooded over the years, with 15 social media platforms accounting for a bulk of active users generating social media traffic. Aside from the four platforms owned by Meta, major players in the social media landscape include:

• YouTube is Google’s platform used for sharing videos.
• WeChat is a messaging platform.
• TikTok is a major short-form video sharing platform that is popular with younger generations.
• Snapchat is a private messaging and video sharing platform.
• X, formerly known as Twitter, is a micro-blogging site that also allows the sharing of news, video, and visual content. 
• LinkedIn remains an extremely popular networking platform.
• Pinterest is a popular social platform used for sharing ideas and photos.

The sheer number of social media platforms where images and videos can be shared would take hours to enumerate completely. As social engagement has become more important to mainstream users, even basic messaging platforms and communications platforms have increasingly started incorporating social engagement features. For example, organizations are utilizing Discord to create communities outside of normal channels and boost brand awareness.

The evolution of social media marketing

Marketing and advertising were baked into social media platforms from their inception. A rival of SixDegress.com, Classmates.com was known for being extremely reliant upon pop-ads, a popular tactic in 1995. Social media advertising as a targeted strategy didn’t really take off until after Facebook launched Facebook Ads in 2006. 

Facebook Ads was a new approach to marketing that allowed advertisers to engage more directly with their target audience, and create more personalized advertising. When platforms such as Twitter, now X, emerged and allowed user accounts to engage with massive audiences beyond their immediate contact circles, advertisers saw limitless advertising opportunities. Instagram and LinkedIn became important content spaces for additional traffic-building tactics.

As social platforms have evolved, and content strategies have emerged around these audiences, brands have come to rely upon the data gathered through social media to craft the right mixture of social media marketing tactics that work best for their brands and can range across a number of strategies:

• Content marketing is a natural fit for social media platforms, as content can be tailored to serve any marketing purpose and work across the inbound funnel.
• Digital marketing can be paired with social media to support affiliate marketing, email campaigns, PPC campaigns, and SEO initiatives.
• Review generation initiatives can be boosted and supported over social media.
• Social media platforms provide the perfect platform for video and visual content dissemination. This can be in the form of recorded content, live streams, and other product or service support.
• Influencer marketing and social proof marketing initiatives are strong additions to social media marketing campaigns. 

The future of social media and social media marketing

The ever-shifting behaviors of online users are the driving force behind social media marketing trends. It’s difficult to talk about the future of social media marketing without acknowledging the drastic shift in user behaviors caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Marketing predictions prior to 2020 were largely negated by the massive upshift in online activity across social media accompanied by increased interest in corporate social responsibility. 

As the economy has adapted to and recovered from the pandemic, certain trends have continued to remain driving forces in marketing while several pre-COVID trends have returned to the spotlight:

• Video content must be a priority in future social media marketing content. Studies show that 91% of consumers would like more online video content from their preferred brands^[3]. 
• Because social proof marketing is at the core of social media marketing, influencer marketing will become increasingly leveraged by businesses in order to cash in on micro- and nano-influencers and the customer niches to which they can provide access. 
• Storytelling in marketing has become an effective way to connect with customers, and in the coming years engaging and interactive storytelling will be considered a priority for many businesses looking to stand out from their competitors. 
• While new social platforms will emerge, existing platforms will pivot to meet customer behaviors and the demand for different features. For example, as content creators across TikTok have been creating increasingly informative and useful video content, users have started prioritizing the platform in search over more traditional search engines.
• Brands who might never have considered maintaining an online retail presence were forced to pivot to eCommerce by the pandemic. Social media sites, recognizing the importance of eCommerce, have started supporting social commerce, which allows brands to sell to users directly from posts, stories, and other types of content. This eliminates friction in the online consumer journey and increases sales conversions. 
• Prior to the pandemic, there was a growing interest in identifying how augmented reality and virtual reality can be best leveraged in marketing. In the coming years, marketing professionals should look to combine consumer demand for video content with new augmented reality technologies to create unique interactive experiences. 
• While brands are already leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) in their marketing and analytics, it will be important to use AI technology to create personalized experiences and use tools such as chatbots to engage with users and provide real-time customer service.

Lessons that modern marketers can learn from the history of social media marketing

Prior to 2006 and the advent of what we consider modern social media platforms, marketing as a business process was largely isolated to the sales department. Business owners and leadership crafted their overall business strategies around specific business goals, and then tasked the marketing team to craft campaigns to support their goals. This approach ensured that marketing was a largely centralized and reactive process supporting business goals.

With the need to maintain a digital presence becoming a standard across industries, brands are being more proactive in crafting their business strategy around the data analytics pulled from social media traffic in order to establish more informed and achievable business goals. 

If marketing experts have learned anything throughout the advent of social media, it’s how important it is to stay informed of current trends and to be willing to adapt to new technologies. 

A flexible mindset in how social media is being leveraged in marketing means that successful teams take into account what techniques no longer bring value and which should be a part of your plans to ensure your ongoing success.

Outdated social media marketing techniques to avoid

Social media marketing trends are driven as much by changes to search engine algorithms as much as they are user behaviors. It follows then that over time certain strategies and tactics will become ineffective or even drive away potential customers.

Avoid generic, repetitive content across social platforms

In the past, content marketing tactics relied largely on the same content being used across platforms. Today, marketing experts understand that social media platforms have different audiences who prefer different types of content. Failing to grasp the need to create content tailored for specific platforms will lead to lower conversion rates, reduced site traffic, and poor post engagement.

Blindly tagging influencers and soliciting content sharing to generate engagement

A form of backlinking and social proof marketing, in the past it was a common practice to tag larger, more popular accounts to piggyback your way into views and pull attention from those audiences. It was also common to ask for content to be shared by other accounts and influencers. These tactics can make your brand seem to rely on spam and come across as needy or unconfident in your brand.

Relying on organic content to drive engagement

In the past, social media platforms relied heavily on content and the inclusion of hashtags to draw attention to their brand. Modern social media algorithms, however, prioritize paid content, so it’s important to budget for and incorporate paid advertising into your social media marketing strategy.

Black hat social media tactics

In the past, it was easier—and even somewhat acceptable—to buy fake followers, likes, and shares in order to game the algorithms into prioritizing your content in search results. They are also used to create false reviews and impressions of either your own brand’s services and products or those of your competitors. 

These bots and false accounts can actually damage your brand in the modern social media marketing landscape. In the modern landscape, where influencer marketing is a common tactic, it’s important to go through a vetting process when choosing to partner with an influencer to ensure their community is legitimate. 

Future-proof social media marketing techniques

It’s not enough to perform a social media audit to ensure you’re not engaging in outdated marketing practices on your social media platforms. Your effectiveness in social marketing in the new economy is going to depend upon your team’s ability to create social marketing campaigns that take current trends and changes in social platform algorithms into account.

One of the most pressing challenges facing social media marketers today are the changes in user privacy rights and third-party cookies that are coming down the line within the next year. A number of states are passing legislation around consumer data protections and Google plans to eliminate third-party cookies, moves that will require marketers to shift marketing tactics significantly across social platforms.

With these elements in mind, there are several strategies that you can start to leverage to lay the groundwork for your future success across social media.

Take an omnichannel approach

Understanding the different audiences each social media platform caters to allows your team to compose an effective mix of marketing and advertising campaigns that take advantage of each platform’s strengths. This omnichannel approach ensures your brand is able to cast the widest net possible and shores your business up against shifts in advertising standards or shifts in consumer attention.

Focus on marketing tactics that build relationships

Paid advertising is great for building traffic from the right target audience, but it’s crucial for long-term success that you’re leveraging AI, email marketing, powerful content, and other tactics designed to engage with your audience and create a sense of community and loyalty. Investing in building out tactics that maximize your ability to offer amazing customer service and experiences will inspire your customers to use social media to rave about your business.

Storytelling over selling

In establishing the importance of relationship building, it’s important to highlight the importance of pivoting your content marketing efforts on social channels, where the platform supports doing so, to be more focused on storytelling rather than selling. Storytelling is a natural and easy method for incorporating social proof into marketing content that performs well on each platform you have a presence.

Prioritize marketing and advertising tactics that gather first- and second-party data

The privacy and third-party cookie changes^[4] that are coming down the line mean that businesses will be losing access to very valuable data sources from social media platforms and advertising campaigns. Future-proof your marketing efforts on social media to collect valuable information directly from your customers and those of your business partners.