Social media has evolved through numerous stages, from the period when the telegraph was thought to be the hottest form of communication to the present when Facebook has increased its focus on creating a mind-reading technology. Stages that have made it clear that this is a growing and enduring industry.
What accounts for the success of these social networking apps?
The technology utilized in social media is a key element in the domain’s remarkable growth, both in terms of users and the potential for ongoing expansion.
These numerical projections are a direct outcome of how technology has affected social media. Constantly incorporating communication and content creation, distribution-assisting technologies like native mobile apps.
In this essay, we will briefly review how far social media technology innovation has progressed since Six Degrees, the dominant platform in 1997, and then take a closer look at the latest social media technologies.
Social Media’s Evolution: A Timeline and Important Moments
The first social media website, SixDegrees.com, launched the field of social media technology in 1997. You could build a profile page, maintain a connection list, and communicate with your network using the platform. Before being acquired for $125 million and ultimately shutting down in 2001, the website had over a million members at its height.
Numerous social media networks monitored Six Degrees’ successes and failures. A number of new social media sites like Friendster, AmIHotorNot.com, and MySpace appeared around that time and in the early 2000s and experienced a fall in the industry.
A select handful, on the other hand, had a sound business plan and were prepared for expansion right away. The following social media sites continue to lead the pack in terms of total users on the social media scene:
Other notable players in the panorama of social media technology evolution included LinkedIn and Foursquare. among others, Grindr, Pinterest, and Snapchat.
The application of the appropriate technology in the field is an unproven fact that has contributed to the expansion and sustainability of the chosen social media platforms. Let’s investigate it further.
Technology’s Importance in Social Media
Mobile apps are where technology’s contribution to the evolution of social media really begins, even though it technically began with the introduction of smartphones and laptops. Over 91% of all social media users are anticipated to utilize mobile devices to access social media channels in 2019 alone, according to a Lyfemarketing analysis.
The increased use of mobile applications for social media can be attributed to a variety of factors:
Convenient in that it only takes three clicks to open the program without having to open a laptop.
Integration with built-in functionality on mobile devices, such as the camera, location, microphone, etc.
The simplicity of content creation and sharing
We think you must have realized the requirement for social media application development by this time. But that’s not where the list of technological influences on social media ends. Other technologies, such as APIs, geotagging, QR codes, and others, have helped social media get to where it is now.
Through automation, connection with other social media services, and e-commerce, technology inclusion enables social media to run smoothly with users’ experiences while also making it accessible, secure, and real-time.
Let’s move on to the list of technologies that are assisting social media app developers in leading the industry to its next development stage now that the advantages of technology and social media have been briefly touched upon.
Technologies Advancing Social Media in the Future
1. Radio frequency identification tags, or RFID
In layman’s terms, RFID refers to a tiny computer chip that can hold data on a person or thing. Each chip has a special serial number that can be linked to the data on the chip. Through this example, let us demonstrate how this technology may be used in practice. Consider scanning your RFID device with an RFID device that has social capabilities built in when you are at a music concert. You can Like a band on Instagram or Facebook or download a few of their songs to your gadget by simply bringing your RFID device to the other one.
Numerous social networking app development businesses have begun incorporating RFID into their mobile applications as a result of RFID’s rising popularity in the event and retail sectors (via the use of NFC).
2. Augmented reality.
Some of the most popular social networking application features include augmented reality and mixed reality. Social media companies experiment with a variety of use cases when incorporating augmented reality into their applications, but the one that has gained widespread popularity is the usage of face filters. AR-driven filters, made popular by Snapchat, are utilized by both individuals and companies to produce interesting content.
Social media advertisements are yet another instance of how AR is being used at the corporate level in social media. Bhad Bhabie interacted with users via an augmented reality (AR)-based app that Snapchat developed for Snap Original last year.
3. Computerized intelligence
Artificial intelligence will always be mentioned first among all the cutting-edge technologies that are having an impact on the social media industry.
Every social media network available today includes AI as a key feature. This is the main cause of the technology’s current default involvement in social networking app development costs.
Advanced machine learning is used by Facebook for a variety of functions, including face recognition, user targeting for adverts, and even improving their search capabilities.
LinkedIn uses AI to deliver user’s specific posts for their feed, propose people they should connect with, and provide job recommendations.
Snapchat tracks physical traits and overlays filters that move with them in real-time using computer vision capacity.
These commercial examples demonstrate how AI is an essential component of the many social media genres.
4. Blockchain
One of the newest subgenres in the social media industry is decentralized and web3 social media website development. Businesses on both sides are experimenting with a number of use cases for social media and blockchain convergence. These are a few of them:
Social media networks rely on ad-based revenue models, which have the drawback of paying content producers differently for their work on the site. Here, a smart contract can be used to guarantee that the authors receive their due compensation without any hindrance or surprise deduction.
Businesses are attempting to stop internet restrictions. Individuals will typically be able to view and curate their own material based on a distributed ledger with the assurance that no institution will be able to prevent access to content.
5. IoT
The Internet of Things is the final trend on our list of social media and technological developments. Some of the biggest companies in the sector, like N&W, Disney, and Tencent, among others, largely rely on technology for social media marketing and monitoring.
Businesses are continuously searching for a social media app development company with IoT expertise to assist them in developing solutions for real-time monitoring of data and insights coming from social media to aid in making better business decisions.