The History of Social Media
History of Social Media
Social media is described in the Oxford Dictionary as "Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking."
Other forms of social media tools have been developed with the advent of Web2.0 These include webinars which are useful for business experts to share their knowledge to the rest of the company and can be accessed by employees in real time or later. Podcasting enables employees to share knowledge and news also and reach targeted audiences through a podcast aggregator such as www.podcast.com. Web conferencing through media such as Google Hangout or Zoom are now used regularly by businesses as a way of linking employees distant in place and sites such as Basecamp can have all information stored in one place with project management tools that can be used from anywhere the internet is available to work collectively around the globe.
Web 3.0 enables even more capability over the Internet. Virtual worlds are a current iteration of social media and businesses are using this media to hold global meetings within the context of their own business world. Employees can experience role play in the simulated work environment in a non threatening way to improve performance.
What is Social Media, and How Does it Work?
Jue, A. L., Marr, J. A. & Kassotakis, M. E. (2010). Social media at work: How networking tools propel organizational performance.
The Internet is the medium for social media and with the advent of Web 2.0 bringing communication capability to the web people were able to communicate within a global perspective.
The following info-graphic shows the progression of social media. It is interesting to see the various icons, many of which are recognized today. Of particular interest is the year in which Google was first registered, twenty years ago!
One of the first popular social media tools were blogs (web logs) and these are still popular today. Wordpress and Google's Blogger were the two main early contenders. Today we have micro blogging applications such as Twitter which limits posts (tweets) to 140 characters. The immediacy of these posts enable global events to be shared in real time and now even the major news networks use Twitter.
Wikis were collaborative website authoring tools that enabled users to collaborate on the creation of web sites. These have been superceded by other free web authoring tools which enable users to collaborate. Google Sites, Weebly, Wix are some of the more popular free collaborative site builders now.
Social networking sites have evolved with MySpace as an early version. The popularity of Facebook now is exponential. Most schools and businesses now have their own Facebook page. One of the most popular tools for businesses is the app 'Linked In' This is aimed at networking business communities and sharing business ideas.
A survey done in January 2013 of small businesses showed that this was the most useful tool for their business. Linked in provides a networking opportunity to connect users to possible job opportunities and for employers to network with each other and share ideas as well as being able to view the profiles of suitable people to employ.
At first businesses used social media as an advertising tool, however over time the use of social media has evolved from that to be an integral part of work inside the organisation, as well as outside. Businesses now utilize the collaborative aspects of social media to enable their workers to collaborate wherever they are. Workers can collaborate over projects working from home or other places. The following info-graphic shows the progression of social media. It is interesting to see the various icons, many of which are recognized today. Of particular interest is the year in which Google was first registered, twenty years ago!
One of the first popular social media tools were blogs (web logs) and these are still popular today. Wordpress and Google's Blogger were the two main early contenders. Today we have micro blogging applications such as Twitter which limits posts (tweets) to 140 characters. The immediacy of these posts enable global events to be shared in real time and now even the major news networks use Twitter.
Wikis were collaborative website authoring tools that enabled users to collaborate on the creation of web sites. These have been superceded by other free web authoring tools which enable users to collaborate. Google Sites, Weebly, Wix are some of the more popular free collaborative site builders now.
Social networking sites have evolved with MySpace as an early version. The popularity of Facebook now is exponential. Most schools and businesses now have their own Facebook page. One of the most popular tools for businesses is the app 'Linked In' This is aimed at networking business communities and sharing business ideas.
A survey done in January 2013 of small businesses showed that this was the most useful tool for their business. Linked in provides a networking opportunity to connect users to possible job opportunities and for employers to network with each other and share ideas as well as being able to view the profiles of suitable people to employ.
Other forms of social media tools have been developed with the advent of Web2.0 These include webinars which are useful for business experts to share their knowledge to the rest of the company and can be accessed by employees in real time or later. Podcasting enables employees to share knowledge and news also and reach targeted audiences through a podcast aggregator such as www.podcast.com. Web conferencing through media such as Google Hangout or Zoom are now used regularly by businesses as a way of linking employees distant in place and sites such as Basecamp can have all information stored in one place with project management tools that can be used from anywhere the internet is available to work collectively around the globe.
Web 3.0 enables even more capability over the Internet. Virtual worlds are a current iteration of social media and businesses are using this media to hold global meetings within the context of their own business world. Employees can experience role play in the simulated work environment in a non threatening way to improve performance.
What is Social Media, and How Does it Work?
Jue, A. L., Marr, J. A. & Kassotakis, M. E. (2010). Social media at work: How networking tools propel organizational performance.
The video shown below charts the development of social media over time and shows us various apps that have enabled people to communicate over the web.
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