beginning. The beast that we now know as social media today evolved at record speed. And most people still to this day, don’t know how to properly navigate through this landscape.
To be on social media is to have access to a special power, to be able to take control of your narrative, to tell the story that’s hidden deep inside of you on your own terms. It’s also up to you to tell the world about your business and how it’s owned and operated. It’s a gift.
Let’s go back even further than Facebook’s inception, and dissect an even more unforgiving platform called Friendster…and Hot Or Not before that. Those social arenas held the basic functionalities of the now-Facebook: Chat, Liking, Sharing…but on a much smaller scale.
Friendster allowed users to request and nurture virtual friendships with strangers across the country. I don’t believe it even had a blog or article section at the time or allowed for organic self-expression. It was a simple tool that allowed people to become “friends” with others, plain and simple.
Now Hot Or Not, that platform’s main objective was to get people to rate others’ looks and decide whether or not someone was attractive. Think of it as a platform where influencers gathered, but they weren’t selling products or signing-up to become brand ambassadors. Platform users were essentially selling themselves…for ratings. Think of Hot Or Not as the grandfather to modern dating applications, such as…well…the list is truly too long and boring to even mention.
Now that a number of years have gone by, we’re facing the dawning of a new age of social media. One of the first rules you have to follow is this: Organic content is now and forever will be king. Long gone are the days when a company would post a coupon, for instance, online and hope consumers would purchase their product or take advantage of said sale. The future is not in sales…it’s in how a brand makes a customer or client feel.