World Social Media Day.
HISTORY OF SOCIAL MEDIA DAY
World Social Media Day was launched by Mashable on June 30, 2010. It was born as a way to recognize social media’s impact on global communication and to bring the world together to celebrate it. Everyone uses social media every day; it’s how we connect with people all over the world in a simple and fast way. Mashable is known to use social media to connect various cultures, movements, and fandoms, which is why they wanted a day to celebrate it. People use the hashtag, #SMDay every year, and this year is your time to get involved!
The first social media platform ever to be launched was Sixdegrees in 1997. Founded by Andrew Weinreich, the website allowed users to list friends and family members and had features such as profiles, bulletin boards, and school affiliations. At its peak, Sixdegrees had over a million users but it was eventually shut down in 2001.
The first modern social media platform was Friendster in 2002. The website allowed people to safely make new friends and has over a hundred million users, most of whom are in Asia. LinkedIn, the first business-focused social media platform was launched in 2003. MySpace launched in 2004, the same year as Facebook, but initially, it saw much greater success than Mark Zuckerberg’s creation. By 2006 MySpace was the largest social media platform in the world, with users loving the customized profiles that also enabled them to post their music.
YouTube launched its website dedicated to video in 2005 and Twitter followed with its limited characters platform in 2006.
As social media has evolved and grown in popularity, so has the scrutiny that the platforms come under. With controversies surrounding their use of data, hate speech, impact on mental health, election results, and fake news, the platforms are under more pressure than ever to be transparent with what goes on behind the scenes.
Social media has become a way to instantly connect, often with friends and family, but also with complete strangers. It has become a huge source of news, shopping, finding influencers for businesses and general entertainment. Social media day is for us to enjoy the positives that these platforms have brought into our lives, and maybe like or share a photo or two.
Social media has also become a platform to build legit business, social media marketing, collaboration and more.