Social Media Networks Before Facebook

When people think of social media networks, it's common that the first thing to come to mind is Facebook (Nasdaq: FB). For good reason, Facebook has dominated the social media scene since Mark Zuckerberg launched the website back in 2004, and it has become the single most important social media site on the Internet. Before Facebook, however, there were a multitude of social media networks that captured the attention of consumers, at least for learn social media marketing a time. Due to strategic planning, a lack of timing or just plain bad luck, these social media networks have failed, leaving Facebook to rise above the rest. At one point, Friendster was considered the premier social media site. Within just a few months of its launch, the company had more than 3 million monthly active users, and Friendster's founder Jonathan Abrams was offered $30 million in 2003 by Google to purchase the site. Instead, Abrams chose to take on venture capital investment and try to grow the company. The company actually ended up self-sabotaging, with user growth outpacing Friendster's ability to keep up. Web pages routinely did not load on time or at all, importance of social media marketing and Myspace quickly eclipsed Friendster in 2004. Friendster still exists today and has created a business model on dominating the Asian markets, with more than 90% of its users based in Asia as of 2015.

Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites.

Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may provide radically different social actions. For instance, Twitter is a social site designed to let people share short messages or “updates” with others. Facebook, in contrast is a full-blown social networking site that allows for sharing updates, photos, joining events and a variety of other activities. Why would a search marketer — or a site about search engines — care about social media marketing agencies social media? The two are very closely related. Social media often feeds into the discovery of new content such as news stories, and “discovery” is a search activity. Social media can also help build links that in turn support into SEO efforts. Many people also perform searches at social media sites to find social media content. Social connections may also impact the relevancy of some search results, either within a social media network or at a ‘mainstream’ search engine. Search Engine Land and Marketing Land produce three conferences dedicated to digital marketing strategies and tactics for professional marketers: SMX, the MarTech Conference and the SocialPro Conference series. Many of our SMX events have topics that cover social media. There’s also our annual event entirely devoted to social media. Check out the site search and social media marketing to learn more: SocialPro Conference. Subscribe to our weekly Social Media Marketing digest and Marketing Day daily recap newsletters, with the latest articles from Marketing Land and Search Engine Land, as well as the day’s news sources all over the web.

Ello Issues 'Bill Of Rights' For Social Network Privacy And Transparency; Calls Out Google, Facebook

Social media networks have thrived by incorporating advertisements along with collecting and selling user data. But the social network Ello, along with several European privacy watchdogs, have called out these companies for deceptiveness and manipulation. On Wednesday, social media marketing applications Ello published a Bill of Rights to describe what policies it believes should be guaranteed on any social network. Ello's Bill of Rights outlines 10 "fundamental rights" that not only will serve as guiding principles for Ello but, Chief Executive Officer Paul Budnitz said, should extend to other companies. "We believe these are the basic rights of every social media user in the world, on every social network," Budnitz said. Several of the principles address concerns that privacy advocates and regulators have brought up -- and even pursued in court -- with other social media companies. These rights would give users the ability to turn off data tracking (currently the subject of a court case brought by a Belgian watchdog against Facebook), allow users to retain full control marketing using social media and ownership of posted content (an issue that has motivated the launch of several pay-for-content networks), the option to use a pseudonym and limit what personal information is required (Germany sued Facebook over this in 2012) and access to terms and conditions written in simple language (a step Snapchat took after settling a privacy lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission).