In a galaxy far, far away, there was a time when the youths of the next generation could not wait to get a new bike, skates, the latest music release, or hottest movie ticket. There were generations of people that played outside till it got dark, drank from the hose, and put lawn motors on makeshift go carts.
Not today’s generation or any generation born after the year 1990. During that monumental time, we saw the incorporation of faster communication methods. This allowed the sharing of information quicker. Once interacting graphically with static images and low-quality video playback were the only options, moving around, finding, and sharing became the norm for most who own a personal computer.
When people mention who was the first social media platform, you are going to hear names like Facebook and LinkedIn (still around). Or maybe Friendster or Six Degrees (bye, all gone). Technically, they would be wrong, because the first social platforms, IMO, are bulletin boards that were held on your personal computer with limited multiple access ports. My definition of a group or community in its purest form. Hence, if you truly want a social interaction with like minds on a plethora of subject matters, check out Discord or similar community platforms.
Back to Social Media Marketing Platforms. I define them as such because of what they provide those paying for your attention. But wait, you say, the app is free. Free to you, the consumer. But not free to those that want your attention. Companies, millions and millions of companies wanting your attention, pay marketing dollars to the Social Media Marketing Platform so you can have free access to cute cat videos. Isn’t corporate America generous, not. In Corporate America there are Marketing Departments. Marketing comes in a variety of forms which may have even started as shouting across the countryside. The main thing a marketing department needs is info on how to convert interest to revenue. Doesn’t matter if the product is hardware (physical product), software (digital), or even a belief system. The more info gathered, the more places needed to store and access that information. This allowed Digital Marketing to define categories of users and the ways to get their attention.
We built databases of contacts, which developed CRM software. We answered the where, what, how and why of our companies/ products with static HTML pages with links in our emails to customers and consumers. These became product databases, FAQs, Technical Support chats, automatic software updates, all through our digital portal to the world, our website.
This became digital marketing, which took on its own life-force in the last 30 plus years. In between the rapid technology growth and dotcom bubble, some presumed the digital world, as we knew it, may not survive a new millennium at the stroke of midnight December 31st 1999 . But on January first in the year 2000, the lights were still on.
Those in Silicon Valley doubled down on making the digital realm accessible for their consumers to easily find their company. We did it so well, that in the last twenty plus years each generation that is born marks their childhood by obtaining their very own digital access portal to the world of free information. We call them smartphones, tablets, and personal computers. Every house has at least one and every parent over the last 20 years has probably used it to entertain their child in some form. Don’t praise the technology yet. Once you feed the animal, it becomes bigger than its parts, it becomes its own entity. Hello AI.
Still think Social Media Platforms are great free tools to stay in contact with friends and family. It probably is, until you realize that every access of information, site, material, or insight is laying a foundation of your predisposed preferences in a variety of situations and or options. Logging onto a Social Media application is like watching only commercials on a channel managed for your interests and then elbowing your friends and family when something interesting is shown or shared which provides access for the companies to build a larger community of like-minded supporters.
Real verified information, imagery, and insights are far and few in between in the Social Media Marketing Platforms of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter(X), and a wide variety of others. Social Media Marketing Platforms or SMMPs are well oiled algorithms to provide those companies interested in YOU, the consumer, a hard drive full of insights to your preferences in everything you touch digitally.
