A platform that provides a venue for people to share activities with family, friends, colleagues and interested parties. Facebook, LinkedIn, X/Twitter and Instagram are the leading social sites in the U.S. See
social network rankings.
Members create an online profile with biographical data, photos and any other information they choose to post. They communicate with each other by making their latest thoughts public in a blog-like format or via email, instant messaging or video chat.
What began for personal use migrated to business. Companies use social sites to advertise products, gain brand recognition, as well as expand traffic to their main website. See
information overload.
Social Networking vs. Social Media
Both terms are used synonymously; however, technically, social networking is sharing information with followers, whereas social media is broadcasting to anyone based on a topic. See
Internet forum and
Reddit.
Social Networks
Facebook is the premier social network. Facebook members have their own personal Web presence that allows them to post content and receive comments. Text messaging is also provided as well as third-party news. Followers receive notices that new content has been posted. In China, the major social network is WeChat. See
Facebook and
WeChat.
Social Media
Social media such as X/Twitter is message broadcasting, essentially a blog with limited content. Text, images, short videos and links are created by members that followers may repost to their followers. X/Twitter has been called a "public town square." See
Twitter and
microblog.
How It Started
In 1997, the first social media platform was SixDegrees.com, named for "six degrees of separation." Lasting until 2001, it was followed by Friendster and MySpace a year later. Started by two friends, MySpace became extremely popular, and its parent company, Intermix, was acquired by News Corporation for $580 million two years after MySpace was launched. See
Myspace and
Friendster.
Facebook came out in 2004 targeting college students, but when opened to everyone, it grew exponentially to become the top social site. Two years later, Twitter was launched with its message broadcasting platform and created its own revolution within a short time. See
social networking websites.