How social media has changed in five years—and where it’s likely headed
I started writing for Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly in the summer of 2010—five years ago almost to the day of this column being published. At that time social media was still evolving, with many businesses still unsure how to leverage opportunities and overcome challenges. Consumer use of social media was significantly less sophisticated as well, with far fewer adults using social media and few platforms being more than niche phenomena.
Well, a lot has changed in five years. Today, approximately three quarters of all U.S. adults on the Internet use social media and more than half have profiles on two or more social media platforms. We’re still using social media to stay connected to family, friends, and colleagues, but also to communicate with businesses, start businesses, find jobs, and hire talent.
Social media is clearly here to stay—and to truly appreciate the impact it’s having, it’s worthwhile to look at how far we’ve come. Here’s a glance, then, at how social media has changed since 2010:
The overall number of social network users worldwide is projected to grow to nearly 2 billion this year—more than double the .97 billion who used social media sites in 2010.
Facebook itself has more than doubled in size since 2010, growing from 608 million monthly users to more than 1.4 billion. To put that into perspective, nearly 40 percent of the entire global online population now uses Facebook.
Twitter has grown more than fivefold, from 54 million active monthly users to more than 300 million.
LinkedIn has grown from 90 million members to more than 364 million members.
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all became publicly-traded companies within the past five years and have subsequently had to balance investors’ needs with those of users.
Today, 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute; in 2010, that number was “only” 24.
Pinterest, which only existed as a prototype when this column started and didn’t launch until September 2011, now has more than 70 million users.
Like Pinterest, Instagram is younger than this column, having launched in October 2010. Today, the platform has an estimated 300 million monthly active users.
Snapchat and Vine? Neither existed in 2010—and it’s likely few of us would have conceived of platforms with “self-destructing” content or six-second videos.
Even though the future may be hard to predict, one thing that makes looking back so interesting is that it may say quite a bit about where things are headed. There are few certainties, of course, but the next five years will likely bring:
More visual context—photos and video, that is. As much as it pains me to say it as a former English major, the written word is taking a backseat to visual content on many social media platforms. This will only become more prevalent as technology becomes easier to use.
More emphasis on real-time content. The recent buzz about live video streaming platforms like Meerkat and Periscope reflects a shift toward truly real-time content sharing beyond things like live Tweets. Sharing video as it happens allows your audience to participate in a much more relevant way—and, as a result, it will become increasingly popular.
A shift in where we spend our time. I think it’s an overstatement to predict that Facebook will be “dead” in five years—although it could happen. It’s more likely, however, that a substantive amount of time currently being spent on Facebook will shift to other niche platforms as “one size fits all” no longer serves anyone’s needs all that well.
More advertising intrusion/opportunity. As social media platforms continue to look for ways to increase revenue, advertisers will be given more options. The challenge is that consumers will tolerate only so much advertising before they question whether they’d rather spend time elsewhere. Therefore, the platforms, and the businesses that use them, will have to continue to walk a fine line between reaching their audience with advertising and being an unwelcome intrusion.
More sophisticated use of platforms by businesses and consumers. Perhaps what’s most interesting about changes in social media over the years are the innovations by its users—individuals and businesses alike. As we continue to learn from each other, we’ll see more of the same, with businesses needing to keep pace with consumers’ changing needs. As a result, social media will continue to evolve beyond being just a marketing tool and will serve as a central hub of communication between businesses and their customers.
