Social media of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

1. NAME: ADAMU MOHAMMAD BULANGU
REG: DP/IT/13/017A
DEPARTMENT: COMPUTER SCIENCE
COURSE: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

2. SOCIAL NETWORKING YESTERDAY,
TODAY AND TOMORROW
Online social networks unify individuals sharing a common interest, or one or more
types of relationships like friendship, employee-employer relationship, fan clubs,
kinship, etc. Members of a group interact, share thoughts, or work for a cause.
Nowadays corporate entities are using online social networking as a tool to reach
to their consumers and prospects. Consumers get a common platform where they
directly interact with representatives of a company. Popular social networking
platforms include: Blogs, Facebook, Flickr, Hi5, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter,
YouTube
The social networking accounts are usually handled by PR team members. They will be
prompt in answering to the queries, reaching out to the potential customers and
giving away latest information about the company. The greatest advantage of this
media is its interactive nature. This virtue fetches great credibility on the products
and services of a company. The PR team can help the management in either help
fixing up a deal, replying to query, catering to an aggrieved customer, reaching out
to the potential customers, letting the stakeholders know the status of the
company or a particular project, and sharing the joy of success etc. Social
networking if used as a tool of marketing can help

3. CONT.
The companies generate great deal of revenue as well. Discounts, offers,
packages etc can be updated over social networking sites, which will reach
the consumers in minutes. It plays an important role in Reputation
management as well. There are instances where in companies were made
to apologize publicly after posting socially inappropriate content. Café
Coffee Day had a tough time after tweeting over Mahatma Gandhi, and
hurting the sentiments of Indians. They had to apologize in public in less
than an hour to cool down the storm. Social networks also reveal how
organizations interact with each other. These interactions may include
informal connections that link executives together, as well as associations
and connections between individual employees at different organizations.
Hence it is very important to be very cautious while interacting as well as
giving away information. Social networking started with Bulletin Board
System (BBS). These were online meeting places where users
communicated with a central system, and with other users using
messages; they could also download files or games.

4. CONT.
BBSes were popular for two decades starting from 1980s.
CompuServe, another avenue for social interactions was developed
during late 1980s. It allowed its members to share files, send
private messages and access news and events. AOL (America
Online) was the first to give shape to social networking sites. It had
member profiles and member-created communities. Yahoo at the
opposition had Amazon ready, which dealt with selling of books
online. In 1995 a social networking site that fits our perception
came in to existence, Classmates.com. This site enabled people to
locate their old school or college friends. This site was followed by
many others including SixDegrees.com. AsianAvenue.com, and
BlackPlanet.come etc. Later, the milestones in the history

5. CONT.
of social networking were laid by Friendster (2002), LinkedIn
(2003), MySpace (2003) Facebook (2004) and Twitter (2006) in
2000s. The future of Social Networking seems bright in terms
of competition, as there are many other social networking
sites coming up, focusing on increasing demand in help
maintaining interpersonal relationships and growing
technologies. Varying interests of people, their diverse nature
and at the same time the global phenomenon named
globalization makes people to have profile in various social
networking site. According to Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, “In
ten years we’ll see millions of social networks for every niche,
need, language, location and passion,” she said. “I disagree
that people want a single profile–they want to have identities
for different social networks.”