Facebook: 10 Years since Social Media Took Over

February 2014 marked the 10-year anniversary of the social media pioneer, Facebook. Since its launch in 2004 by then 19-year-old Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook has revolutionised the way marketing, advertising and society function.

Creating a new demand
The advent of Facebook brought along with it a newfound desire for interconnectivity: everyone wanted to be a part of social media, and today, that need for constant connectedness continues.
Now, people of all ages, including the generations who grew up without the Internet, want to be seen and heard; they want to share and be noticed; they want to interact in real time, instantly, with hundreds or even millions of people at a time.

Inspiring innovation
This has had a profound impact in the way people now relate to one another and to how they form and maintain both new and old relationships. For the corporate world, it has shaken marketing and advertising to their core. Not only did Facebook and the other social media networks that followed (Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) offer an exciting, new platform for advertising, they also created the demand for a type of advertising that appealed to society’s freshly developed need for interactivity.

Marketing could no longer be about perfecting a catchy jingle or static artwork: now advertisers and marketers needed to engage with their target market by forming an interactive dialogue-based relationship with consumers.

Limitless marketing opportunities
Fortunately, the corporate world has responded with aplomb, offering up cutting-edge and creative ways of connecting with social media users. The ways of building your online audience to create awareness of your business are virtually endless. Beyond establishing a basic social media presence, companies can harness the full marketing potential of social media with innovative techniques: take Point and Stare‘s live Twitter feed, for example. It gives companies a fully branded, up-to-the-moment live feed that can be displayed on fully interactive screens at any corporate event.

Guests, along with anyone anywhere in the world, can Tweet about the company’s event and it will appear immediately on the live screen, generating that sense of connectedness and validation that is so valued by modern consumers.

For inspiring marketers and advertisers to innovate; for creating opportunities for affordable, effective online advertising; for giving users a voice – for all this and more, we thank you, Facebook.