undeniable influence
Some people believe it's a revolution; others say it’s just a fad. No matter what side of the argument you fall on, it’s undeniable that social media has made an impact on a global scale. Sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn have changed the way we connect and communicate, for better and for worse. Somewhere in cyberspace, communication has been democratized, allowing the average person to share ideas and opinions with the entire world. Even more incredibly, the world is listening, and it only takes a few clicks to join the conversation that could change everything.
Key Instigators: The Beginning of It All It was in 2006 that social media platforms exploded on the scene, although many were officially launched in the early 2000s. As the idea for instant communication and connection floated through the heads of web developers everywhere, several unlikely candidates jumped on board to get their piece of the social media pie. Take Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, for instance. In 2004, he was an undergraduate at Harvard University when he decided to create an online version of the student directories given to all students, often called Face Books. The purpose behind Face Books was to help students learn more about each other and put faces with names. But why flip through a book when you can do it online? And so Facebook was born. What began as a site designed just for Harvard students became a global phenomenon that now boasts over 350 million active users (www.facebook.com/ press). Such is the case with Twitter as well, which was first created as a way for employees of the podcasting company, Odeo, to communicate anytime and anywhere. No platform had
8 quarterly winter 2010
yet to embrace the idea of mobile media, thus the idea of using your cell phone to send updates to a website allowed the company to stay connected while constantly on the go, albeit, only 140 characters at a time. MySpace, LinkedIn and YouTube were among the leaders of the pack, and their success topped the charts before Facebook and Twitter were even on the brink of their future. MySpace became the most popular social networking site in June 2006, while YouTube snatched the title of the fastest growing website and LinkedIn ended the year with 8 million members. We may not have known it yet, but it was the beginning of a remarkable shift. A change so significant, some argue it’s the greatest transformation since the Industrial Revolution. That’s a big claim, considering that almost every aspect of human life was influenced by the transition to machine-based manufacturing. But give it some thought. The internet may be the steam engine that’s driving the social media movement, and we’ve yet to see how it all plays out.