This is the second post in a two-part series discussing the decade in social media. The first post covers social media from 2000-2004.
Yesterday’s post covered the first half of this decade, and since there was not an overabundance of topics to cover, it was fairly simple to analyze. However, social media’s amazing ascent began during the last few years of this decade, so choosing what I felt to be the major events from 2005-present was a difficult task. I encourage you to leave feedback on which events you feel should have made the cut and why.
2005
Online video has its day
As you might recall from yesterday’s post, a former PayPal executive founded the popular business-minded networking site, LinkedIn. An unrelated group of three former PayPal employees launched social media mega star YouTube in February 2005, leaving me wondering what was in the water at PayPal headquarters. At that point (and still today), the online collective was clamoring for video. I remember reading an article 15 years ago in a computer magazine that said streaming video would never be larger than a postage stamp and never more than 15 frames-per-second. I wish I could reference that with a link for you! A combination of more powerful computers, faster internet connections, and cheaper bandwidth allowed YouTube to flourish in 2005.
A quick reminder of just how far YouTube has come: According to a Wall Street Journal article published on August 30, 2006, YouTube hosted 6.1 million videos. By July 2009 that figure was up to well over 100 million, according to an article published by Associated Content. Twenty one months after its birth, Google acquired the company for an astounding $1.65 billion. Oh, and Mashable called YouTube the “top social media innovation of the decade.”
2006
Facebook goes public . . .
. . . well, kind of. Facebook remains a privately-owned company, but up until September 26, 2006, users needed an email address ending in “.edu” or an employee email address from one of a handful of companies to be allowed network access. Opening Facebook to anyone 13 or older sent membership skyrocketing. Having graduated in 2003 (prior to Facebook’s availability at my alma mater, UC Santa Barbara, it was impossible for me to gain access to the network on which my friends were sharing every detail of their life. These new membership standards gave me a chance to join, and I, like millions of others, did just that.
2007
Apple unleashes the iPhone
Less than three years after its launch, the iPhone and its four percent market share is now the most popular cell phone in America in 2009. Named Time magazine’s 2007 Invention of the Year, the iPhone gives users access to a plethora of social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter. Uploading photos can be accomplished in under a minute. This feature and many others continue to change how people create and consume online content. The iPhone-optimized Facebook site launched in August 2007 with an official Facebook application arriving in July 2008. Prior to the iPhone, many people relied on their Blackberries (or similar smart phone device) for email services and limited web access, but social media apps were not yet mainstream. As we see smart phones with unlimited data service become more commonplace, the incentive to develop full-featured social media-focused apps will only increase.
2008
The Presidential Election
Millions of American citizens took to Twitter and Facebook to follow the latest musings of then-Senator Barack Obama, Senator John McCain, and their respective staffs from the campaign trail. President Obama’s campaign staff was particularly effective in turning their fans and followers into donors and volunteers. BusinessWeek went so far as to call the election a “victory of social media.” Others, such as Marketingmag.com.au, go as far as to claim that social media was the deciding factor in the race.
2009
Twitter, Twitter everywhere
First came the techies, then the celebrities, the masses, and finally, Corporate America. I may be missing a few steps in there, but at the time of this blog post, Twitter’s user base is up to . . . well, it depends on who you ask. Twitter doesn’t publicly release their active user numbers, but according to an eMarketer report from September, there should currently be somewhere around 18 million users. Compete.com shows Twitter.com reached an audience of over 22 million unique visitors in November 2009, which does not factor in people who use Twitter solely through third-party applications like TweetDeck and HootSuite.
While this is a far cry from the 350 million active Facebook users, it is still highly relevant for businesses looking to connect with their audiences. Just look on the back of a carton of Tropicana juice—Twitter gets equal billing to Facebook, even though Facebook has far more users. Towards the end of 2009 we even saw Twitter strike deals with Google and Bing to provide live Twitter search results along with traditional search results.
So, what will we see in 2010? Where will social media go in the next decade? Share your ideas on the future of social media in the comments below.
See our first post for major events in social media from 2000-2004.
[Photo of Tropicana box by Jarad Bernstein with an iPhone 3GS]
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Thoughtful post Jared. You can find my thoughts on the subject on IowaBiz.com. Now I’ve got to go check my HotOrNot account. Thanks for bringing it up.