World Social Media Day
All 5 billion social media users unite as we celebrate World Social Media Day on June 30 together this year!
Can you imagine a life without Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit and Youtube in this age?
From making friends, sharing videos, staying connected with family members, learning new things, entertaining ourselves, documenting personal journeys and finding a job, social media offers it all.
Who Started World Social Media Day
Mashable , a renowned digital media platform, started World Social Media Day back in 2010. The point of this day was to create a global day of celebration and appreciation for all the social media platforms that play a significant role in transforming our society.
A Timeline Showing the Evolution of Popular Social Media Platforms
SixDegrees is considered to be the first social networking site launched in 1997, similar to the modern social media platforms. People could build their profile by sharing their interests and connecting with other people who had similar interests.
However, SixDegrees had to shut down in 2001 because Internet and network connectivity were not very well developed then.
Entrepreneur Adrian Scott launched Ryze, a platform similar to Linkedln today, in 2001. It was designed to connect business professionals with each other, especially those new in the field.
Friendster was able to launch itself into the mainstream space with promise of new connections and dates. Around 3 million users joined Frienster, a huge feat really!
However, its downfall can be accredited to technical issues and user-interface which was quickly improved upon by new platforms such as Facebook and MySpace.
Linkedln is one of the largest and widely used job platforms globally today. It all started back in May 2003 when 4500 members registered within the first month itself. Today, it has more than 1 billion users over 200 countries.
Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe founded MySpace back in 2003. People could make new friends, customize their profile according to their interests, share music and much more. It gained 5 million users within just a year!
Did you know that stars like Adele, Calvin Harris, and the Arctic Monkeys were discovered on MySpace?
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook on February 4, 2004. Zuckerberg was a second-year student at Harvard at the time. However, there was a lot of doubt regarding its authenticity. Harvard seniors Divya Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss, and Tyler Winklevoss had accused him of stealing their idea.
Over 2.7 billion users are on YouTube today. So how did it all begin? Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim founded YouTube on 14th February, 2005. Its primary purpose was to create a platform where videos could be shared easily.
Reddit was started by two roommates at the University of Virginia. It became a forum where many people shared their ideas, questions and thoughts and also received feedback. Close to 62 million people are reddit users today!
Founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, Twitter was merely a side hustle for them. Now the platform boasts of over 368 million active users worldwide.
It is currently owned by Elon Musk and he changed the name of Twitter to X.
Education was not really necessary for the success of the founder of Tumblr. David Karp was only 21 when he made Tumblr. He wanted to create something less complicated than sites like WordPress and he was successful in creating one.
Successful artists such as Lana Del Ray and The Neighborhood became popular on Tumblr.
Instagram has integrated so deeply into our lives today that it is almost impossible to not randomly scroll on Instagram every morning. When it was launched in 2010, it instantly gained 1 million followers within just the first 3 months!
Celebrate World Social Media Day
World Social Media Day is all about celebrating the boons of social media to make more connections, get immediate information at your fingertips and always stay connected with your loved ones.
- Social Media is all about letting your inner creativity out. Share your old pictures, a poem you have written, a creative visual or just anything else you wish to share.
- Social Media Day is not just about fun. Also use the platform to spread awareness about important causes and positive messages. Always remember to be kind.
- Do not forget to engage with your followers on Social Media Day. Make a poll, live-stream, do a social media challenge, host a giveaway or contest, host an 'Ask Me Anything' session and many more.
- Social Media is a great place to learn and educate yourself about new things if used wisely. Why not use a bit of your social time to improve your knowledge?
