You really don’t have an excuse anymore. So just put down the megaphone.
You can’t say this is all new stuff and you don’t know any better. Why?
Because. . . They are all OLD. Older than you think.
Social media is NO LONGER a shiny new fad.
Wikipedia launched may of 2001. That’s 15 years ago!
Stumbleupon is just another 15 year old.
Remember Friendster? What about Technorati? Can you believe that they arrived 14 years ago?
Facebook was founded in February 2004. That means it’s 12 years old.
LinkedIn has been linking since 2003.
Blogging took off in 2003. That’s because that is when WordPress was first released to the world.
2004 brought us the once favorite child, MySpace. And what about Flickr, or Yelp — all of them have been with us for 12 years.
And you cannot say that only the nerds were using these platforms. That’s because by 2005, Facebook had over 1 million active users.
YouTube started to kill TV in 2005 when it launched.
Twitter, has been with us for a decade.
People started to ignore each other in person basically starting in 2007 when the first iPhone came out. That’s also when people with bald spots became really self-conscious because people don’t look at your face anymore but rather the top of your scalp. Why? Because if you think about it — since 2007, you’ve been looking heads down constantly at your phone — while walking, at the table, in the bathroom, pretty much anywhere and everywhere.
Social media has been with us for so long that we’ve even had to say goodbye to friends at digital funerals. Remember Google Wave? Yeah. That was 2010.
Thankfully, Instagram immediately turned those tears of goodbye into pangs of joy. That’s because since 2010, over 300 million people are now snapping selfies on Instagram today.
Only a couple of social networks have launched “recently,” and when you look closer, it is not even that recently. SnapChap is the new kid on the block? Guess what. It is five years old. That’s half a decade old.
So why am I going on this reminiscent Tour of Social Media History? Because for some reason, people are still using social media only has a megaphone. They continue to think that it is the easy way out.
Are you one of them?
If you are still using social media as a megaphone, you are missing out on the real opportunity. [CLICK TO TWEET]
Especially if you are publishing on behalf of an organization — you should be looking beyond the one-to-many model of communications over social networks immediately. The genius of it is the reach that social connectivity brings and the impact from harnessing the network effect which your organization can take advantage right now. Today.
You see, if you really want to engage your community, and if you really want to enrich their lives . . And you want them to look at you as a meaningful member of that community, you will put down that megaphone and realize that there are many voices within your community worth listening to as well.
