A Brief History of
Social Media
@JohnSharp
LinkedIn.com/in/JohnSharp

Objectives
 Define social media
 Mobile
 History and
 Hazards
pre-history
 The Big Four
 Blogging
 What’s New

There are two kinds of people
in the world…
Those who think there are two kinds of
people and those who don’t

There are two kinds of people
in the world…
People who tell computers what to do,
and people who are told by computers
what to do.

There are two kinds of people
in the world…
People who know social media and
those who don’t.

Social Media Defined
 the means of interactions among people in which they
create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas
in virtual communities and networks
 Based on Web 2.0 technologies
 User generated content, personal profile, tagging,
connect to others

Social Media Explained
 Twitter – I’m eating a #donut
 Facebook – I like donuts
 Foursqure – this is where I eat donuts
 Instagram – here is a vintage photo of my donut
 YouTube – here I am eating a donut
 LinkedIn – my skills include eating a donut
 Pinterest – Here’s a donut recipe
 Spotify – listening to “Donuts”
 G+ - I am a Google employee who eats donuts

Pre-History
Before Social Media
 Message boards, bulletin boards, discussion
groups
 Early in the Internet age – early 1990s
 AOL chat rooms
 Patients already looking for help online
 ACOR – Association of Cancer Online Resources
 MedHelp – questions answered by physicians

Framework of Social Media
 Identity
 Presence
 Conversations  Relationships
 Sharing
 Reputation
 Groups

Evolution of the Big Four

Social Media Timeline
Friendster 2002
MySpace 2003
LinkedIn 2003
Facebook 2004
Twitter 2006

Facebook’s Road to
World Dominance
 By June 2004, 30 campuses, 150,000 users
 How it overwhelmed MySpace, passed it in 2009, kept
growing
 2011 – hosting over 100 billion photos
 2012 – purchases Instagram
 Reaching 1 billion users
 http://socialmediatoday.com/daniel-zeevi/1251026/ultimate-historyfacebook-infographic

Why are cat videos so
popular?
 YouTube History
 2006 - YouTube was one of
the fastest growing sites on
the Web
 October 2006 – purchased by
Google
 2007 - 2009 – hosted content
for an increasing number of
news and movie studios and
government
 2012 – 800 million users per
month

Their Tweeting
Behind Your Back
How Twitter became a social phenomenon
 2007 Became its own company, introduced at SXSW –
60,000 tweets per day
 2010 – 100 million tweets per day
 Celebrities popularize, sporting events
 2012 - 200 million monthly active users
 Companies create accounts, customers question poor
service and generate “churn”

Let me give you my business
card
 LinkedIn transforms business relationships – online rolodex,
resume, job history, job search
 Launched 2003 as a trusted way to connect professionals
 2006 – public profiles, recommendations, people you may
know
 2008 - goes global
 2010 – 90 million members
 Now – 225 million – mobile, more extensive profiles, groups

Blogging Platforms

Socially Mobile
How smart phones exploded
Social Media
 Social and mobile
– Facebook check-ins
 Photos of where I am posted instantly Instagram
 Location - FourSquare

Don’t be a fool or be fooled
 Social Media Privacy Settings
 Can be a moving target
 Twitter – most open, public
 Facebook – can limit photos and postings
to Friends only
 Don’t have to accept linking to others
 YouTube videos – can keep private and share
selectively
 Clicking on a posting does not raise money or create
social change

Cyber bullying and Other
hazards of social media
 Reputation threats – circulating photos, revenge
websites, negative reviews
 The photo you can’t remove from social media
 Protecting an organization’s reputation
 Deleting negative
comments
 Taking the offensive –
building a positive
reputation

What’s New in
Social Media?
 SlideShare

What’s New in Social Media

What’s new

What’s New

What’s New

What’s New
6 second videos for sharing

Social Media is here to stay
 But that doesn’t mean some won’t fail
 Effective platforms for communication if understood
and used effectively
 Crowdsourcing defined

Practice of obtaining needed
- services,
- ideas, or
- content
by soliciting contributions
from an online community

Crowdfunding
 Type of crowdsourcing to raise funds
 Popular platform – Kickstarter
 Now in healthcare – MedStartr
 Usually a limited amount of time to raise the funds
 Integrates other social media like Twitter to raise
awareness

Objectives
 Define social media
 Mobile
 History and pre-
 Hazards
history
 The Big Four
 Blogging
 What’s New

It’s a wrap