SOCIAL NETWORKING 101

Social Networking is one of the 4 technologies (Mobile, Cloud, Social and Big Data) that make up 3rd Platform.

Social Networking Connecting People

Social networking is a method of communicating with people using web and or mobile technology over the internet.

Ray Tomlinson Email Inventor

When I think about where social networking came from... it's like most technologies that did not simply pop into existence but evolved from earlier communication technologies. The very first way humans communicated on the internet was using email. In fact, when the first few computers were connected to form the early internet around 1971, it was Ray Tomlinson who sent the first email from one computer to another by inserting an @ symbol. Before this email was only sent between users on the same computer system.

UseNet News 9 Top-Level Groups

Usenet news was another early method of communication. Users could post messages to series of groups whose names centered around topics of interest that are abbreviated as comp. "computers",  sci. "science", news., talk. and soc. "social".  these messages where all grouped together and copied between servers on the internet. Usenet readers could download some of all of the groups using a usenet news client similar to an email reading program.

Bulletin Board Systems

BBS or "Bulletin Board Systems" were a lot like Usenet news except they were generally not copied between servers but hosted on a single computer that often required the people to connect to the BBS server by dialing into it using a modem. CompuServe was the first to institute a real-time method chat services that was a big hit with users.

Chat programs came into existence everywhere with names like IRC, AOL and ICQ.  Many of these chat programs quickly added features like group chats and even file sharing.

Email, Usenet and BBSs were NOT real-time communications. IRC, AOL and ICQ were a big step forward from a users perspective.

Personal Blog/Website

As personal websites became popular, readers of these early websites wanted a way to communicate with the authors of the sites and that lead to having a comment section on websites. I think of this as the beginnings of blogs like the one you are reading now.

Sharing stories is how early humans evolved and social networking software and websites are just our way of using technology to share stories faster and even globally. Today, Social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat and Linkedin are just a small sample of what is available.

Avatar

Many of these online social services revolved around you creating a personal profile with an avatar or digital representation of yourself. People are very conscious of how other view them. Your digital representation is very important for those who chose to create one. Once your profile is created you can search to find others who you wish to follow and attract them to follow you. Friendster was an early example of this.

Social network is having a massive effect on our global culture. Today any human being with a cell phone can stay connected globally to what is going on in the world. Twitter can be used to spread news around the globe in seconds. There are many famous examples of the effects of people who can communicate instantly to gather in protest or for fun such as "Flash Mobs".

1/2 Price Coffee

I imagine that when the first business was created so were the first attempts to market to potential customers. Before social networking,  phone, road signs, snail mail flyers, and windows signs were how companies marketed to potential customers. Today businesses have a way to connect with any human carrying a smart phone, laptop or tablet. Marketing requires 2 things. 1. Locate the people you have identified as being most likely to purchase your product. 2. Get your pitch in front of them.
Businesses today identify the keywords associated with their perfect potential buyer and can simply search billions of digital profiles on the web to locate their model audience. Sometimes it's not enough just to find the users but to hit them with your pitch at the perfect moment. By gathering information from the phone such as their current location or recent search keywords, companies can target their marketing efforts to those likely to purchase their goods or services at the perfect moment. Imagine being able to popup a 1/2 price coffee offer to a user phone as they walk past your coffee shop.  Google has made a fortune from Adwords that appear in your customer search results.

If you are not seeking and getting in front of you customers in social networking... your competitors are. Buyers are making their decisions using technology such as their phone and the web. Only after their decision has been made do they drive to the store. Traditional marketing groups will find their nontechnical marketing attempts becoming less effective moving forward.