social networking yesterday, today and tomorrow
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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
· Flickr
· Hi5
· MySpace
· 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
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the company 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.
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
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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.”