Social Media Marketing: How did we get here?

When talking about social media as a marketing tool, it is now the general consensus that we are witnessing the advent of a whole new era where digital communications are integral in all we do. The way people are interacting with companies has changed and communications between businesses and customers are no longer unidirectional, they’ve become more complex and heterogeneous. During the last few years, social media has become the trending topic when discussing marketing strategies. From small local businesses to the largest corporations, an online presence is a must.
Has social media changed the way we communicate with others? Yes.
Is it revolutionizing it? Not really.

The Internet has, from its early years, been used as a social tool. From wikis to forums, users have always found the web as an excellent tool to communicate with others.
Then why are platforms such as Twitter or Facebook brought into discussions about how social media has changed the rules? Because they brought companies into the game.
Platforms such as Bebo or Myspace didn’t offer brands a place to speak to/with their audience, but the new wave of social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Google+, Tumblr…) have made it easy for companies to take part and start communicating with their customers in a different space and medium. As a result a lot has been said on how companies should approach social media and this has become an endless discussion on what the best ways to use these tools are, and how to integrate them into marketing strategies.
People have always been open to communicating across the web and what we now call social media isn’t just a response to that need but an evolution of previous states of social websites. By understanding the capabilities of these social tools you will get to understand where your audience are based and how they are using these platforms, but most importantly, how to use them for your company.